Catalogue de la Bibliothèque de M. Eugène von Wassermann - Wasserman, Eugène von 1870-1925 (Antwerp Buschmann, 1921)
The auction sale catalogue of the private collection of Eugene Wasserman who owned a fine collection of bindings. Accompanied by separate album of plates.
First cousin of Oscar Wassermann, Eugène von Wassermann was born on 13 March 1870 in Bamberg, the son of Angelo Wassermann and Dora Bauer. He worked as a stockbroker in Brussels, where he lived in a small mansion [destroyed] at 52 rue du Luxembourg. He began collecting books in 1888, following a constant preoccupation: "to bring together the most interesting specimens of illustrated books and bindings from the fifteenth to the first half of the nineteenth century, and in this way to constitute a history of bookbinding and illustration through the ages". In 1910, he was a founder member of the Société royale des Bibliophiles et Iconophiles de Belgique. He had a catalogue of his books printed "ad usum amicorum" in 100 copies by Librairie Henri Leclerc: Les Livres composant le cabinet de M. Eugène v. W*** [von Wassermann] (Brussels, 1913, in-4, 58 plates in black and colour). Living in Berlin since the armistice of 1918, he sold his art collection [paintings, plastic arts, engravings and drawings] from 8 to 10 June 1920 at Rudolph Lepke's Kunst-Auctions-Haus. He sold his library at the Galerie Georges Giroux, Brussels, in 1921, in 7 sales. The sale brought in 1,256,858 francs. Eugène von Wassermann died unmarried in Berlin on 29 June 1925, and was buried in the Jewish cemetery in Bamberg, next to his parents.
Manuscrits, incunables, livres illustrés de la fin du XVe siècle au début du XIXe siècle, alamanchs illustrés, recueils de portraits, de planches relatives aux costumes, recueils de dessins et ouvrages ornés de dessins, reliures du XVe au XVIIIe siècle, reliures de l'époque romantique, livres anciens dans tous les genres, etc. etc.
Keywords: 20th Century (1901-2000); Bibliography; Bibliophilia; Catalog; Collecting; Brussels (Belgium)