[WEDDING ALBUM - THE NETHERLANDS - GERMANY].
Zur Erinnerung an die Hochzeits-feierlichkeiten von Ella de Ridder und August Janssen in Frankfurt a/M im August 1896.
(Colophon:) Amsterdam, Calligrafie und Druck von Johan. K. Koning, [1896]. Large folio (ca. 51 x 33 cm). Wedding album comprising five manuscript texts of occasional plays (4 in German, 1 in Dutch), written in a neat cursive in blank ink on thick laid paper, each illuminated with a 4-line decorated initial in red, blue and white on a gold/bronze field, richly decorated with penwork in black ink (extending down into the inner margin). Each text is preceded by a letterpress title leaf set in neo-Gothic type, also used for the general title, several text leaves, and the colophon. Further with 1 gouache illustration on grey paper (sheet size ca. 32 x 24.5 cm, mounted on the first leaf) showing a bouquet of flowers, 14 printed ephemera relating to the "Polterabend" (wedding-eve party) and the wedding on single or double leaves in various sizes (the wedding announcement/introduction to the wedding-eve party and attached is a photo of the couple in a circular frame of red wax, 5 menu cards, the lyrics to 6 German songs, a musical score by the German composer Wilhelm Aletter (1867-1934), and an announcement of the comic opera Des Teufels Antheil by the French composer Daniel Auber (1782-1871), performed by the Frankfurter Opernhaus on 25 August 1896 in Frankfurt am Main. Also with two manuscript wedding speeches in German, written in black ink on paper, two mounted albumen prints, the first showing two actors dressed as a Frisian farmer and his wife and the other showing a man in Chinese dress, 56 large ornamental vignettes printed in red or blue throughout, 17 ornamental tailpieces printed in black, blue, and red, and some dried flowers mounted on several leaves. Contemporary gold-tooled burgundy leather, the front board with a large gold-stamped monogram as a centrepiece (the intertwined initials of the couple: AJ and EdR) with the date ("24-26 August") above and the year ("1896") below lettered in gold, both boards show a single fillet frame along the outer edges, gold-tooled turn-ins, beige watered silk endleaves. [60] ll.
€ 3,500
A sumptuously executed wedding album presented to the Dutch groom August Janssen (1865-1918) and his bride Ella de Ridder (1877-1951), produced in honour of their wedding celebrations which took place on 24-26 August 1896 in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Most of the album concerns their "Polterabend", the wedding-eve party similar to present-day bachelor-/bachelorette parties except for the bride and groom joining together in the festivities. The main event now associated with a Polterabend is the smashing of porcelain by the wedding guests in order to bring luck to the couple's marriage, but in general the evening is filled with plays and songs written and performed for the couple by their family and friends.
A few performing actors were members of the Janssen-family, a Dutch business family who had amassed their fortune with the tobacco cultivation in the former Dutch East Indies. They were also known for their generosity and philanthropic activities in the Netherlands. At the head of this family was the German-Dutch merchant Peter Wilhelm Janssen (1821-1903), one of the founders of the Deli Maatschappij in Sumatra and father of the groom, who was his second son. His eldest son Christian Wilhelm Janssen (1860-1927) was married to Susanna Dorothea Anna Rehbock (1862-1933). Her brother, the Dutch merchant Heinrich Carl Rehbock (1865-1938) was married to Caroline Janssen (1871-1951), one of the five daughters of Peter Wilhelm Janssen. Among the other actors were the brother of the bride Gustave von Ridder (1874-1956), the German playwright Hermann Otto Rudolf Presber (1868-1935), the German lawyer Paul Roediger (1859-1938) and his Dutch wife Julie Louise Charlotte Elink Schuurman (1875-1961), the sisters Anna Maria Humser (1876-1974) and Elisabeth (Else) Humser (1872-1967), daughters of the German lawyer and politician Gustav Adolph Humser (1836-1918), who was chairman of the Frankfurt city council at the time of the wedding celebration.
The groom August Janssen (1864-1918) started his business career at trade offices in Bremen and London. He subsequently left for the former Dutch East Indies where he founded several enterprises. His wealth enabled him to engage in philanthropic activities. For example the municipality of Baarn benefited from his generosity, he erected two public swimming pools there at his own expense. The bride Ella (Elisabeth) de Ridder (1877-1951) was the only daughter of the Belgian-German merchant August Cornelius de Ridder (1837-1911), known for his distinguished art collection of mainly Dutch and Flemish paintings of the 17th century which he built at his house at Kronberg near Frankfurt am Main. The famous Anglo-Hungarian artist Philip Alexius de László (1869-1937) painted Ellas portrait in 1903 in Baarn at the house of Hendrik Cornelis van den Honert (1854-1916), the successor of Peter Wilhelm Janssen as director of the Deli Maatschappij in 1898. De László had also painted her mother, Johanna Elisabethe Louise May (1853-1942) around 1898 and two of her children in 1908.
A unique wedding album of two members of prominent German-Dutch business families, written and printed in 1896 as a special single copy publication. The album was produced in Amsterdam by Johan K. Koning, who took care of the calligraphy of the texts and the printing of the (divisonal) titles, explanatory leaves and vignettes.
The spine and edges and corners of the boards show signs of wear with some minor loss of material at the foot of the sipne and the tips of the corners of the boards, the leather is somewhat faded adn scratched, all without affecting the general clarity of the tooling or the integrity of the binding. The watered silk on the first free flyleaf is torn, some offsetting to the blank versos of the leaves, and some glue residue on the leaves with dried flowers. Otherwise in good condition.
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