SCHROTH, E., binder. HAFIS. ~ Eine Sammlung persischer Gedichte.
Edited, revised and with an afterword by Jan Tschichold, dated Nov. 1944. Translated by Georg Friedrich Daumer. Pp. [1-6], 7-219 plus blanks. 17.5 x 10.3 cm, 8vo., bound in a near contemporary binding by E. Schroth of Basel (signed on the lower cover in gilt and with his label tipped in at the rear) in a sumptuous and unusual binding of full tan smooth morocco with a rich and elaborate embossed design on both sides using gilt and red, blue and brown onlays tooled in gilt of flowers. leaves and branches and a parrot holding an onlaid central oval shield in dark brown morocco, gilt fillet border, spine in compartments with raised bands, tooled in each panel in gilt with gilt fillets round the bands, titled in gilt in second panel, turn-ins tooled in gilt with a flower roll, board edges tooled in gilt, all edges gilt, housed in the original card slipcase. A very handsome book.
The seventh volume of the Birkhauser collections of poetry.
Hafis, otherwise known as Mohammed Schemseddin, was the greatest secular poet of the Near East, being born in Shiraz in Persia in the 14th century. He was a great teacher of his time, belonging to a community of dervishes and wrote in what was called ‘the mystical tongue’. Here his work appears in the fine German translation made by Georg Daumer in the 19th century.
Schroth is a very little known but remarkably accomplished Swiss binder, working in the mid 20th century in Basel.
A very handsome piece of binding art.