RICHTER (Jean Paul) Auszuge, 4to MS, title + 48ff.n.n., illustrated with 39 examples of nature-printed or dried seaweeds (9 text, 30 mounted on 27ff.), bound in linen-covered boards with seaweed decoration, a.e.g. (upper cover a little chipped), "Colonsay Summer 1900" £650

Richter (1763-1825) was translated into English by De Quincey, Holcroft, and most notably Carlyle, who called him "the most untranslatable of Germans". Auszuge consists of a few original extracts and many translations of varying lengths - in total ca. 30,000 words. Some pieces are attributed, others are unsigned and may well be original work.

The volume is inscribed from Emma Richter-Kallenberg (almost certainly a descendant) to Maud Ranken; Colonsay is a small island off the west coast of Scotland. Ms. Kallenberg lived there from before 1900 until the First World War when she was interned, never to return; her cottage (now a ruin) is still known.

The text alone represents a considerable (and intriguing) achievement; it is the fairest of fair copies with the lettering of the title heightened in gold - but the seaweed illustrations are a notable enhancement. Some are clearly dried specimens, albeit impeccably preserved on fine paper over light card; but others are so skilfully and delicately rendered that they may more appropriately be considered to be nature-printing.

Nowhere is this more effective or attractive than in the nine text illustrations, each some 4" square, in the upper corner of a leaf. The binding too has a spray of sea-weed pressed and varnished onto uncoloured linen; presumably a commercially-produced blank notebook was adapted and enlarged - the paper is watermarked Donald Campbell and Son, Glasgow.

This is a remarkable piece; content and provenance alike pose intriguing questions, while it is intrinsically a most beautiful artefact, worthy of admiration as well as scholarly analysis.