1887 Rare Book - The Dance of Death by Hans Holbein the Younger
A beautifully illustrated 1887 edition of Hans Holbein's celebrated Dance of Death, featuring forty-eight plates depicting Death's encounters with figures from every walk of life, preserved in an attractive Victorian red-burgundy cloth binding with a striking gilt skeleton on the spine.
Author: Hans Holbein the Younger.
Title: The Dance of Death.
Publisher: London: Hamilton, Adams & Co.; Glasgow: Thomas D. Morison, 1887.
Edition: Illustrated nineteenth-century edition, complete with forty-eight plates.
Language: English.
Pages: Unpaginated, with text and illustrations printed on one side of the leaves only.
Size: 8.5 x 5.5 inches.
Binding: Very good original red-burgundy cloth binding, with gilt lettering, decorative borders, and a distinctive gilt illustration of a dancing skeleton on the spine. The cloth retains its attractive red colour, with some light rubbing and handling marks. The upper and lower extremities of the spine show minor wear and slight fraying, as illustrated. The binding remains sound and well preserved. Protected in a removable mylar cover.
Content: Very good content, complete and well preserved, with occasional light foxing and age toning, more noticeable on the preliminary and final leaves. Illustrated throughout with forty-eight finely detailed black-and-white plates, each accompanied by descriptive text. Includes an illustrated frontispiece portrait of Holbein, a decorative title page, a biographical sketch of the artist, and an appendix. The illustrations remain sharp and beautifully reproduced.
Illustrations: Forty-eight plates after Hans Holbein's celebrated Dance of Death designs, including The Creation, The Temptation, The Condemnation to Labour, The Bishop, The Canon, and The Emperor, together with the striking Dance of Macabre illustration in the appendix.
Estimate: $300–350 USD.
The book: The Dance of Death is one of the most remarkable achievements of Renaissance illustration, presenting a powerful meditation on the universal certainty of mortality. Through a sequence of extraordinary images, Death appears unexpectedly among people of every social rank, from emperors, kings, bishops, and noblemen to merchants, labourers, and ordinary citizens. Neither wealth nor authority offers protection from his summons.
This attractive 1887 edition brings Holbein's celebrated imagery to life through forty-eight illustrated plates, each presented opposite its accompanying explanatory text. The elaborate Renaissance-inspired borders, intricate compositions, and expressive figures give the work considerable artistic and historical appeal. The original red-burgundy cloth binding, particularly its unusual gilt dancing skeleton, provides a fitting and memorable exterior for this enduring work of macabre art.
The artist: Hans Holbein the Younger (1497/1498–1543) was one of the greatest portraitists and designers of the Northern Renaissance. Born in Augsburg, Germany, he established his reputation in Basel before moving to England, where he became court painter to King Henry VIII. His portraits are celebrated for their extraordinary precision, psychological insight, and refined technique.
Among his most influential achievements are the designs for The Dance of Death, created during the 1520s and first published as a woodcut series in Lyon in 1538. Combining satire, religious reflection, and extraordinary visual storytelling, the series exposes the vanity of worldly power and the equality of all people before death. Holbein's compositions have influenced generations of artists, illustrators, and writers, securing their place among the most enduring images of European Renaissance art.