Gerhard & Kathryn Gerlach collection

Painted sign

Gerhard Gerlach was born Germany, 1907, trained as bookbinder with Ignatz Wiemeler, State Academy of Graphic Arts, Leipzig, married fellow student, American Kathryn Edwards, emigrated to New York, 1934. They operated a binding workshop in New York City, then Chappaqua, New York, finally moving to Shaftsbury, Vermont in the 1960s. They bound limited editions for many fine presses; their work was included in many exhibitions of notable bindings. Their circle of friends included Frederic Goudy, Melbert Cary, Jr, Valenti Angelo, Fritz Kredel, Joseph Blumenthal, Rudolph Ruzicka, Harrison Elliott. Their daughter, Kathy Link wishes to sell the material gathered in Shaftsbury, including bindings, sketches, photographs, correspondence, many private press books & books about books.

Gerlach bindings include about 20 examples in leather, gold tooled, most in slipcase or clamshell box, some bound while in Germany, mock-ups of bindings, a few dozen ordinary books rebound in half-leather or cloth with leather spine labels, as well as a set of the 11th edition Encyclopedia Britannica in original wooden case.

Buchkunst, Beitrage zur Entwicklung der Graphischen Kunste, Band 1, 1931, bound by Gerhard Gerlach

Hofmannsthal, Deutsche Epigramme, Munchen, 1923, #83, bound by Gerhard Gerlach

Homer, Borchkardt, Altionische Gotterlieder, Munchen, 1924, bound by Gerhard Gerlach

Jahrbuch der Einbandkunst, Leipzig, 1927, bound by Gerhard Gerlach

Shakespeare, Hamlet, Stuttgart, Juniperuspresse, 1925, bound by Gerhard Gerlach

Carl Burckhardt, Kleinasiatische Reise, Munchen, 1925, bound by Gerhard Gerlach

Hegel, Delius, Seinen Briefen, 1918, #54, bound by Gerhard Gerlach

Pourtales, Chopin, Paris, 1929

Goethe, Stella, Leipzig, 1924, bound by Gerhard Gerlach

Voltaire, Paul Klee, illustrated, Candide, Pantheon, (1944)

von Aue, Borchardt, Heinrich, Munchen, 1925

Stevens-Nelson Paper Company, Specimens, 1953

Bedier & Engels, Tristan & Iseut, Paris, 1914

Valenti Angelo, Persian Fairy Tales, Peter Pauper Press, 1939

Mary Vorse, Alban Butler, illustrated, Ninth Man, Woolly Whale, 1920

Wilde, For Love of the King, London, 1923

Carossa, 3 volumes

Goethe, Liebes Gedichte

Stevenson, Schatz Insel

Goethe, Werke, 6 volumes

L’Art Francaise, 5 volumes

Mockup binding for American Airlines presentation.

Mockup binding for John D. Rockefeller tribute

A Collection of V-Mail Letters

Quentin Fiore, papermaker, Paracelsus, 1493, paper binding by Gerhard Gerlach

Blank mockup binding for John Keats letter

Bindings for Dard Hunter titles:

Dard Hunter, Papermaking Pilgrimage to Japan, Korea & China, Pynson Printers, 1936

Hunter, Papermaking Pilgrimage, mockup binding with blank leaves

Dard Hunter, Papermaking by Hand in India, Pynson Printers, 1939, bound by Gerhard & Kathryn Gerlach

Trial case for Papermaking by Hand in India

Custom photo albums, house-guest book, blank album, a bookbinding kit:

Gerhard Gerlach photo album.

Photo album with snapshots of Gerhard Gerlach

Tagebuch, Guest Book from Gerlach Home in Chappaqua, 1933

Paper covered scrapbook

Learn to Bind a Book, prototype kit by Gerhard Gerlach

Correspondence with Wallace Stevens regarding binding work for him includes 8 signed letters on Stevens’ business letterhead, letters from his daughter, copies of their replies.

Wallace Stevens letter

Wallace Stevens letter

Wallace Stevens letter

Wallace Stevens letter

Wallace Stevens letter

Wallace Stevens letter

Wallace Stevens letter

Photo of Gerhard Gerlach binding for Wallace Stevens, Transport to Summer

Wallace Stevens, Esthetique du Mal, Cummington Press, XIX/40, signed by author & illustrator, illustrations hand-colored

Signatures of Wallace Stevens & Wightman Williams, with presentation note from Cummington Press

The collection includes much archival material. There are several hundred pencil drawings of bindings, lettering, decorations, color studies of bindings. A leather-bound scrapbook & clamshell box contain professional photographs of bindings, workshop, Gerhard Gerlach at work, exhibitions of bindings. Four bankers boxes (over 5 linear feet) contain professional correspondence, business receipts, photographs, clippings, Christmas cards from presses & illustrators & other relevant ephemera.

Color study for binding

Color study for binding.

Color study for binding.

Color study for binding

Color study for binding

Color study for binding

Color study for binding

Color study for binding

Color study for binding

Color study for binding

Poster design

Study for binding

Design for box

Lettering design drawing

Studies for spine

Pencil drawings of spine

Study for binding

Study for binding

Study for binding

Drawings for spine, Hunter, Paper Making in India

Design drawing, Schnitzelbank, Press of Woolly Whale

Study for Vose, Ninth Man

Binding study

Binding study

Binding study

Binding drawing

Several hundred other books include Ruzicka, Studies in Type Design, 1968; Zapf, Feder & Stichel, 1950, 170/500; Kinder, Formulas for Bookbinders, Roycroft, 1905; extensive runs of Keepsakes & Chapbooks from the Typophiles & American Institute of Graphic Arts; 1939 New York World’s Fair tunnel peep-show & Westinghouse Time Capsule Book of Record, 1938; Arthur Miller, After the Fall, signed, limited; several dozen books written, printed or illustrated by Valenti Angelo, most with signed inscriptions, including: Persian Fairy Tales, 1939, Relation Alvar Nunez Cabeca de Vaca, Grabhorn, 1929, Jastrow, Gentle Cynic, Grabhorn, 1921, Blake, Cradle Song, 1949, Steinbeck, East of Eden, Chapter Thirty-four, 1952, Keats, Ode, 1952, Saroyan, Fiscal Hoboes, 1949; many Press of the Woolly Whale imprints: Kredel, Schnitzelbank (2 copies, 1 in plastic binding), 1938, Holmes, Prayer for Wedding, 1938, Cary, Estivation of Two Mao Tzu, 1935 & War Cards, 1937, Lippmann, Scholar in Troubled World, 1932; many from Frederick & Bertha Goudy & Village Press: Half-century of Type Design, 1946, Gaudeamus Goudy, Distaff Side, 1939, Specimen of Types since 1932, Types & Type Design, 1936, Bertha Goudy, First Lady of Printing, 1958, Beilson, Story of Frederic Goudy, 1939, AIGA Village Press Retrospective, 1933, Bookmaking on Distaff Side, 65/100; Herbert & Peter Fahey, Parchment & Vellum, 1940, 50 copies; John Donne, Prayer, Banyan, 1947, 63/120; Gillian Haven, Pandora, Wanderer & Flood, Isis Press, 1982, 1976, 1977; Tate, Fragment of a Meditation, Cummington Press, 1947; Lorca, Romance de la Guardia Civil Espanola, Janus, 1974, 19/300; Rogers, Portfolio of Fine Book Pages, Mergenthaler, 1928, 879/925; Japan Paper Company, Printing Papers & other promotional samples; other similar titles. Many of the books have signed inscriptions to the Gerlachs, programs, menus, presentation letters & other ephemera inserted.

THE COLLECTION HAS BEEN SOLD.

The stone mill in Shaftsbury, Vermont is also available. Please inquire if interested.

Advertisement