I'm working through a folder of over 800 scans, and came across (became reacquainted with!) this, which probably should have been in the posts on bookplates a while ago!
It's actually printed into the front flyleaf of an 1879 imprint of Goethe's Faust, translated by Anna Swanwick, the blank area being for the owner of the book to sign or print their name, as a form of pre-printed bookplate. I've worked on it in the contrast tool, to make it a little clearer, the original is quite feint.
The signature below the etching is that of the artist Friedrich August Moritz Retzsch
(1779–1857), a German painter and etcher known for his outline
illustrations of classic literary works, especially those by the aforementioned Goethe, and Schiller. There are another 40 etchings "engraved on steel after the works of Moritz Retzsch" in the book.
Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moritz_Retzsch
As I go through the folder I'm also adding various minor-make entries to the A-Z Blogs, and there's been a couple of disambiguations added too, so I may concentrate on the A-Z's, this year?


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