Softcover
1926 · Dresden
by Walther, Alexander Paul (A.P.) (photographs); Gustav Allinger (designer)
Dresden: NP, 1926. Softcover. fair to vg-. Oblong large quarto. 88 leaves (+ 1 blank). Textured brown limp leather binding, string-tied, with gilt lettering on the front cover. Period decorative Art Deco endpapers.
Unique presentational* photo album containing a total of 207 images, 187 of which are original photographs, documenting the Jubiläums-Gartenbau-Austellung (Anniversary Horticultural Exhibition) in Dresden, 1926. Of the photographs, most are b/w silver gelatin prints, 3 prints are striking duo-tone images in red, and 2 additional images (including an images of roses) are early full color photographs (captioned as "farbenfotografie", likely autochromes). Images throughout are mounted on a series of 88 leaves of heavy stock black paper (most double-sided). Each photograph contains a debossed blind stamp, or in-image logo to the lower right corner, from the studio of Alexander Paul Walther (1893-1972), "Photo, Walther. Dresden. Plauen, Rackstr.2" (A.P. Walther), the exhibition's official photographer. The photographs, in both glossy and matte prints, range in size from approx. 3 1/2 x 5 1/2" to 8 1/2 x 11". Each plate has either a single larger mounted photograph or a group of smaller images in 3 to 4 -image spreads. A group of 20 images near the end are offset color reproductions after original images. Each leaf protected with a period spider web-design tissue guard, bound in between each leaf.
Held in honor of the 100th anniversary of the founding "Flora" - the Saxon Society of Botany and Horticulture (Sächsische Gesellschaft für Botanik und Gartenbau), the exhibition was located in the Great Garden of Dresden, from April 23 to October 11, 1926, housing 1400 exhibitors, and receiving more than 3 million visitors during its run. The design for the exhibition was created by landscape architect Gustav Allinger (1891-1974). The horticultural exhibition was held simultaneously with the Internationale Kunstausstellung (final 4 leaves), as part of the larger 5th Annual Show of German Work (Jahresschau Deutscher Arbeit) a series of exhibitions held every year in Dresden, between 1922-1929. Planning for the event began as early as 1923, with a design competition initiated for the overall layout of the exhibition, as well as designs for both indoor and outdoor spaces. Sections for the event included flower gardens arranged by season (Spring, Summer and Autumn), areas divided by tree and plant type, fruits and vegetables, horticultural scientific research, landscape architecture, industry, greenhouses an irrigation systems. Previous exhibitions on a comparatively small scale had been held in Dresden since 1887, including events in 1896 and 1907.
Images included here show: gardens, flowers, hedges, produce, regional plants (including desert plants), fountains, garden sculptures, visitors, purpose-built structures for the exhibition, cafes, banquet halls, celebratory dinners, night photography (lit fountains) and architecture. Also included is a group photograph showing the kitchen and wait staff for the restaurant/ banquet hall of the exhibition palace.
Notable structures shown include:
- The famous "mosaic fountain" built for the event, by artist and architect Hans Poelzig (1869-1936) and his wife Marlene Moeschke-Poelzig (1894-1985) is shown. It still stands in the Great Garden to this day (b/w photograph).
- The "Green Cathedral" (Grüne Dom) a 40-meter-high, wooden tower with a star-shaped floor plan, covered in plants. It was designed by Gustav Allinger along with Josef Wentzler (1884-1942) and Richard Mutzek.
The final 4 leaves contain 8 photographs from the landmark International Art Exhibition (Internationale Kunstaustellung) held at the same time as the horticulture exhibition. Photographs show both the exterior facade of the building and interior shots of the exhibition rooms. Innovatively mounted by art curator and critic Hans Posse (1879-1942) this striking exhibition featured more than 800 paintings and almost 190 sculpture, by around 460 artists, from 20 countries, prominently including a wide-range of German, European and American artists, with modernist and avant-garde works, by the likes of Otto Dix, Klee, Matisse, Léger, Braque, Picasso, Degas, Gaugin, and Renoir. El Lissitzky notably designed a "room for Constructivist Art" specially for the event. Today this exhibition has been noted to have been one of the most important events of its kind held during the Weimar Era. The Internationale Kunstaustellung has been said to have been directly influential to the postwar Documenta held in Kassel since 1955. The book "Die Internationale Kunstausstellung Dresden 1926 in historischen Aufnahmen von Alexander Paul Walther " (2020), comprised comprised of Walther's images is the definitive work documenting the subject.
Binding with leather on the spine torn off, as well as soiling and bowing to the covers. Interior with some tissue guards are stained, slightly creased or chipped. One has been mostly ripped off. A few photos towards the end are partially coming loose, with one already detached but present. Images are all clean and vibrant. Binding in fair, interior in very good- condition overall. * Presentational copy to "Richard Arnold. Pächter de Ausstellungspalastes" ("Richard Arnold. Lesee of the exhibition palace"). During the 1920s and 30s Richard Arnold owned/ran the restaurant and banquet hall(s) at the Städtische Ausstellungspalast, where events relating to the Horticultural Exhibition and the International Art Exhibition were held. These areas can be seen in a number of the photographs present in the album. Arnold is very likely shown somewhere in the large group photo of the restaurant staff, previously mentioned.
Alexander Paul Walther (1893-1972) was a German photographer and photo-printer originally based in Dresden and later in Radebuel. After starting to work professionally in photography in 1913, he became an early pioneer specializing in commercial color photography and color printing by 1919, founding the DFW," Dresdner Farbenfotographische Werkstätte" (A.P. Walther) studio. Walther referred to himself as a "specialist in the production of color photography and color photo, image printer in mass quantities". He was the official photographer of the Jahresschau Deutscher Arbeit, and all of its constituent events, during the 1920s. In 1938 to studio moved to Radebuel, when the name as changed to "A. P. Walther, Radebeul-Friedensburg". It continued to operate through the 1970s.
Bibliographic references:
- Allinger, Gustav. Die Jubiläums-Gartenbau-Ausstellung, Dresden, 1926 (Jahresschau Deutscher Arbeit). Berlin, Gartenschönheit, 1926.
- Starke, Holger (ed.). Dresden in der Weimarer Republik. Wirtschaft und Verkehr.
- Starke, Holger; Uwe John (eds.). Geschichte der Stadt Dresden. Von der Reichsgründung bis zur Gegenwart. Konrad Theiss Verlag, Stuttgart 2006, p.284–297.
- Websites: Deutschefotothek.de, Altesdresden.de
- Die Gartenkunst (36-37.1923/1924). (Inventory #: 54557)
Unique presentational* photo album containing a total of 207 images, 187 of which are original photographs, documenting the Jubiläums-Gartenbau-Austellung (Anniversary Horticultural Exhibition) in Dresden, 1926. Of the photographs, most are b/w silver gelatin prints, 3 prints are striking duo-tone images in red, and 2 additional images (including an images of roses) are early full color photographs (captioned as "farbenfotografie", likely autochromes). Images throughout are mounted on a series of 88 leaves of heavy stock black paper (most double-sided). Each photograph contains a debossed blind stamp, or in-image logo to the lower right corner, from the studio of Alexander Paul Walther (1893-1972), "Photo, Walther. Dresden. Plauen, Rackstr.2" (A.P. Walther), the exhibition's official photographer. The photographs, in both glossy and matte prints, range in size from approx. 3 1/2 x 5 1/2" to 8 1/2 x 11". Each plate has either a single larger mounted photograph or a group of smaller images in 3 to 4 -image spreads. A group of 20 images near the end are offset color reproductions after original images. Each leaf protected with a period spider web-design tissue guard, bound in between each leaf.
Held in honor of the 100th anniversary of the founding "Flora" - the Saxon Society of Botany and Horticulture (Sächsische Gesellschaft für Botanik und Gartenbau), the exhibition was located in the Great Garden of Dresden, from April 23 to October 11, 1926, housing 1400 exhibitors, and receiving more than 3 million visitors during its run. The design for the exhibition was created by landscape architect Gustav Allinger (1891-1974). The horticultural exhibition was held simultaneously with the Internationale Kunstausstellung (final 4 leaves), as part of the larger 5th Annual Show of German Work (Jahresschau Deutscher Arbeit) a series of exhibitions held every year in Dresden, between 1922-1929. Planning for the event began as early as 1923, with a design competition initiated for the overall layout of the exhibition, as well as designs for both indoor and outdoor spaces. Sections for the event included flower gardens arranged by season (Spring, Summer and Autumn), areas divided by tree and plant type, fruits and vegetables, horticultural scientific research, landscape architecture, industry, greenhouses an irrigation systems. Previous exhibitions on a comparatively small scale had been held in Dresden since 1887, including events in 1896 and 1907.
Images included here show: gardens, flowers, hedges, produce, regional plants (including desert plants), fountains, garden sculptures, visitors, purpose-built structures for the exhibition, cafes, banquet halls, celebratory dinners, night photography (lit fountains) and architecture. Also included is a group photograph showing the kitchen and wait staff for the restaurant/ banquet hall of the exhibition palace.
Notable structures shown include:
- The famous "mosaic fountain" built for the event, by artist and architect Hans Poelzig (1869-1936) and his wife Marlene Moeschke-Poelzig (1894-1985) is shown. It still stands in the Great Garden to this day (b/w photograph).
- The "Green Cathedral" (Grüne Dom) a 40-meter-high, wooden tower with a star-shaped floor plan, covered in plants. It was designed by Gustav Allinger along with Josef Wentzler (1884-1942) and Richard Mutzek.
The final 4 leaves contain 8 photographs from the landmark International Art Exhibition (Internationale Kunstaustellung) held at the same time as the horticulture exhibition. Photographs show both the exterior facade of the building and interior shots of the exhibition rooms. Innovatively mounted by art curator and critic Hans Posse (1879-1942) this striking exhibition featured more than 800 paintings and almost 190 sculpture, by around 460 artists, from 20 countries, prominently including a wide-range of German, European and American artists, with modernist and avant-garde works, by the likes of Otto Dix, Klee, Matisse, Léger, Braque, Picasso, Degas, Gaugin, and Renoir. El Lissitzky notably designed a "room for Constructivist Art" specially for the event. Today this exhibition has been noted to have been one of the most important events of its kind held during the Weimar Era. The Internationale Kunstaustellung has been said to have been directly influential to the postwar Documenta held in Kassel since 1955. The book "Die Internationale Kunstausstellung Dresden 1926 in historischen Aufnahmen von Alexander Paul Walther " (2020), comprised comprised of Walther's images is the definitive work documenting the subject.
Binding with leather on the spine torn off, as well as soiling and bowing to the covers. Interior with some tissue guards are stained, slightly creased or chipped. One has been mostly ripped off. A few photos towards the end are partially coming loose, with one already detached but present. Images are all clean and vibrant. Binding in fair, interior in very good- condition overall. * Presentational copy to "Richard Arnold. Pächter de Ausstellungspalastes" ("Richard Arnold. Lesee of the exhibition palace"). During the 1920s and 30s Richard Arnold owned/ran the restaurant and banquet hall(s) at the Städtische Ausstellungspalast, where events relating to the Horticultural Exhibition and the International Art Exhibition were held. These areas can be seen in a number of the photographs present in the album. Arnold is very likely shown somewhere in the large group photo of the restaurant staff, previously mentioned.
Alexander Paul Walther (1893-1972) was a German photographer and photo-printer originally based in Dresden and later in Radebuel. After starting to work professionally in photography in 1913, he became an early pioneer specializing in commercial color photography and color printing by 1919, founding the DFW," Dresdner Farbenfotographische Werkstätte" (A.P. Walther) studio. Walther referred to himself as a "specialist in the production of color photography and color photo, image printer in mass quantities". He was the official photographer of the Jahresschau Deutscher Arbeit, and all of its constituent events, during the 1920s. In 1938 to studio moved to Radebuel, when the name as changed to "A. P. Walther, Radebeul-Friedensburg". It continued to operate through the 1970s.
Bibliographic references:
- Allinger, Gustav. Die Jubiläums-Gartenbau-Ausstellung, Dresden, 1926 (Jahresschau Deutscher Arbeit). Berlin, Gartenschönheit, 1926.
- Starke, Holger (ed.). Dresden in der Weimarer Republik. Wirtschaft und Verkehr.
- Starke, Holger; Uwe John (eds.). Geschichte der Stadt Dresden. Von der Reichsgründung bis zur Gegenwart. Konrad Theiss Verlag, Stuttgart 2006, p.284–297.
- Websites: Deutschefotothek.de, Altesdresden.de
- Die Gartenkunst (36-37.1923/1924). (Inventory #: 54557)
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