(Swiss Children's Books) Hosch, Paul and Melching, Hans. D'r Luschdig Zipiti und Sini Schbezel. 8 Farbigi Bilderboge (Original Schteizeichnige) mit "Lehrreiche Reimche." Basel: Verlag: Wepf Schwabe & Co., [1915]. First Edition, First Printing. Landscape folio, 9-13/16" x 13-3/8" (250 x 345 mm). Comprising 8 loose color lithographed plates (original Schteizeichnige or stone drawings), printed on heavy, high-grade cardstock, featuring integrated hand-lettered calligraphic text in the Basel German dialect (Baseldeutsch). Housed as issued in the original publisher's color pictorial lithographed folding paper portfolio cover, with the upper panel titled distinctly in black.
The physical condition of the lithographed plates is graded (10/10) - MINT (utilizing a standardized 10-point scale for photographic prints and original works of art, indicating a flawless specimen exhibiting no perceptible defects or signs of handling to the naked eye). The eight lithographed plates are loose in the original publisher's color pictorial lithographed folding cover as issued, with all plates in as new condition for what is an amazingly nice copy of the work. The condition of the original color lithographed portfolio wrapper is graded separately using the standard antiquarian book grading scale for works on paper, presenting in NEAR FINE condition; the folder exhibits light rubbing around the edges for what is a bright, clean, and really nice example of the original color lithographed folding cover.
Modernist Graphic Mechanics and the Basel Schweizer Werkstätten
This exceptionally scarce portfolio represents a landmark avant-garde achievement in early twentieth-century Swiss material culture, bridging the gap between progressive European graphic arts and juvenile literature. Drawn entirely on the stone by the pioneering Swiss architect, designer, and poster artist Paul Hosch (1886–1975) in collaboration with his pupil Hans Melching, the work serves as the foundational manifesto of their newly formed Schweizer Werkstätten (Swiss Workshops). Heavily influenced by Hosch’s immersive exposure to Austro-German modernism, the design mechanics explicitly mirror the geometric, flat-plane aesthetics of the Vienna Secession (Wiener Werkstätte). Each of the eight narrative plates acts as a unified graphic canvas, where bold color-saturated blocks, stark linear contours, and a muted, sophisticated palette harmonize to depict the moralistic tales ("lehrreiche Reimche") of Zipiti and his companions.
The production mechanics are further distinguished by Hosch's choice to hand-letter the typographic components directly onto the lithographic stones. Rather than relying on standard letterpress typesetting, the Basel German dialect verses are rendered in an integrated, expressive German calligraphy that flows within the contours of the illustrations. This absolute integration of text and image was a direct hallmark of Secessionist design theory, treating the entire page layout as a cohesive artistic ecosystem. Due to the hyper-localized dialect text, contemporary commercial success was limited, and this remains the only juvenile illustrative work published by Hosch during his long architectural career.
Ephemeral Survival and Institutional Census
Because this work was issued as a portfolio of loose plates intended for nursery handling rather than a conventionally bound codex, its vulnerability to dispersal, tearing, and loss was absolute. The thin paper portfolio covers were routinely discarded, and individual plates were commonly extracted for framing, making the survival of a complete, pristine suite within its original folding container a superlative rarity. Scholars of children's literature consider the production a pinnacle of national design; it is cited in standard references (Hürlimann, 38; Farbtafel 14) and explicitly lauded by Kaiser as "one of the most beautiful Swiss children's books" (Swiss Picture Books, p. 33).
A current global sweep of the OCLC/WorldCat database underscores its near-total ephemeral disappearance, identifying only two copies in permanent public or institutional collections worldwide (held at the Princeton University Library Special Collections and the Universitätsbibliothek Basel).
A PRISTINE, DEEPLY SIGNIFICANT SWISS CHILDREN'S PORTFOLIO REVEALING A PARAMOUNT CONVERGENCE OF VIENNA SECESSIONIST GRAPHIC DESIGN, CHROMOLITHOGRAPHIC STONE PRINTING, AND EARLY TWENTIETH-CENTURY OPTICAL JUVENILIA, CONSTITUTING A PARAMOUNT ARTIFACT FOR ADVANCED RESEARCH INTO EUROPEAN AVANT-GARDE PRINTING HISTORY, MODERNIST MATERIAL CULTURE, AND THE GRAPHIC LEGACY OF THE SCHWEIZER WERKSTÄTTEN, REPRESENTING A PARAMOUNT ACQUISITION FOR INSTITUTIONAL RESEARCH ARCHIVES OR EXTRAORDINARY PRIVATE COLLECTIONS DEVOTED TO EARLY EUROPEAN MODERNIST CHILDREN'S LITERATURE.
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