Nutcracker and the Mouse King

Diótörö és Egérkirály / át E.T.A. Hoffmann. - Budapest: Europa Könyvkiadó, [1977]. - 318 p.; 54x35 mm. - ISBN 9630712334



Brown cloth binding. Dark brown print and label with title on the spine. Original edition 1958 Aufbau-Verlag Berlin. Translated in Hungarian by György Sárközy; illustrated by István Engel Tevan. 5000 copies.

The Nutcracker and the Mouse King (Nussknacker und Mausekönig); a story written in 1816 by E. T. A. Hoffmann in which young Marie Stahlbaum's favorite Christmas toy, the Nutcracker, comes alive and, after defeating the evil Mouse King in a battle, whisks her away to a magical kingdom, populated by dolls. Ernst Theodor Wilhelm Hoffmann (1776-1822), better known by his pen name E.T.A. Hoffmann (he changed his third forename in Amadeus in homage to the great composer Mozart), was a German writer, composer, caricaturist and jurist. After his study at the university of Köningsberg he had a very unsettled career, moving from town to town. In 1794 he gave music lessons to a married woman named Dora Hatt. She was ten years older but he became very enamored of her. She gave birth to her sixth child in 1795. By an arrangement between the two families he got a position elsewhere. In 1816 Hoffmann attained a high position in the Supreme Court in Berlin but still he could not make a choice between his role as a bureaucrat and as an artist. He died in 1822 as a result of nervous exhaustion and excessive drinking. He is the (fictional) subject and hero of the famous opera 'The Tales of Hoffmann' by Jac. Offenbach. His most familiar story is the novelette in this miniature book which inspired Tchaikovsky's ballet 'The Nutcracker' (1892).

Les Lais

Les Lais / par François Villon. - Budapest: Kossuth, 1983. - 40 p.: ill.; 74x55 mm.

Red velours binding with portret in gold frame. Hand set in Monotype Garamond and printed on Zanders Ikonorex Special Mat. Eight reproductions by László Gyarmathy of portrets in oil-panting by Endre Szász. Edition of 200 copies for customers of the Kossuth Printing House.


Text in french of Les Lais (The Legacy) of the famous poet, vagabond and thief François Villon. (Paris ca 1431 - after 1463 ) Villon got a master of arts degree in 1452 and became a clerk. In 1455 he was sentenced to banishment, after a scuffle with a priest - both courting the same girl - and fled. His sentence was remitted by King Charles, but in the next year he was again in trouble because of a girl named Catherine de Vaucelles. He had to flee a second time, to his uncle in Angers this time. Not quite a year later he was caught again because the chapel of the Navarre College was broken open and five hundred gold crowns were stolen. Through Louis XI he came out of prison and went back to Paris. In less than a year he was banished again. So his life went on, alternating between living as a bohemian and being imprisoned. In 1563 he was arrested and condemned to be hanged, but the sentence was commuted to banishment on 5 January 1463. After that date there is no further record of Villon. He is perhaps best known for his Testaments and his Ballades written while in prison. He wrote 'Le Lais' when he was on the run to Angers. The most famous and cited line he wrote is perhaps the question "Mais où sont les neiges d'antan?" (Where are the snows of yesteryear?) from the 'Ballade des dames du temps jadis'.



Statue of François Villon in Utrecht

Borsodi Költök

Borsodi Költök. - Miskolc: Miskolci Miniatürkönyv Gyütök Klubja, 1978. - 48x40 mm., 188 p.


Collection of poems by fourteen poets from Borsod in Hungary compiled by Gyula Szabó and Sándor Urszin.

Gilt black leather. In a black leather box in the shape of a book. Exlibris of the Miskolc Club of Miniature Book Collectors. Numbered copy (in red) 64/100. 550 copies numbered in black of which no 64 also in this collection. Copies with a number in red have a numbered loose leaflet with two extra Exlibris on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the Miniature Book Collectors Club.
Printed in Budapest by Ifjusagi Nyomda. Designed by Sándor Várhegyi; typography and binding by György Méri

Esztergom

Esztergom / Károly Andruskó. - Budapest: Szépirodalmi Könyvkiadó, 1974, - 40x36 mm. - 36 p., ill. - ISBN 9631502163.

Dark green leather with gilt title on front and spine. Typography and binding by István Jánosa. Compiled by Béláné Ágotai and edited by Gyula Janka.


Woodcuts of Esztergom by Károly Andruskó, with a preface by Pál Szölgyémy.

The city of Esztergom was founded in 972 by King Géza and therefore one of the the oldest cities in Hungary and until 1249 the capital of the country.
Situated in the northern part of Hungary, about 45 km north-west of the capital Budapest, on the right bank of the river Danube, which forms the border with Slovakia. The Mária Valéria bridge, connecting Esztergom with the city of Štúrovo in Slovakia, was destroyed by the retreating German troops in 1944 and rebuilt in 2001 with the support of the European Union. 
The 'Bazilika' of Esztergom is the third biggest temple in Europe
                                                                                        Gerda on the Maria Váleria Bridge in 2001 
                                                    
Károly Andruskó (1915-2008), Hungarian engraver and painter. During a long life his production was huge: over 3000 paintings, more than 500 water-colours and thousands of woodcuts.
Outside Eastern Europe he was especially known as an engraver and exlibrist ánd by his many miniature books with woodcuts of towns and regions. Mostly published under his own name and often printed and bound by Gyorgy and Valérie Varnyu.