Eric Chaim Kline Bookseller in Santa Monica has listed a complete set of Hermann Struck’s ‘Die Kunst des Radierens: Ein Handbuch von Hermann Struck’ (‘The Art of Etching: Handbook by Hermann Struck’), described as a first-edition set of all five editions published between 1908 and 1923 and accompanied by a total of 27 original prints. The listing places the work among the bookseller’s new arrivals and highlights an unusually rich example of an instructional art book that also functions as a collector’s object.
Struck’s handbook was published in Berlin by Paul Cassirer, first in 1908 and then in later editions through 1923. According to the listing, the complete set includes 25 original etchings, one lithograph and one woodcut, along with 12 variant motifs. The earliest volume, issued in 1908, contains five original etchings as called for, with captioned decorative tissue guards and an etched frontispiece. The final edition, issued in 1923, is identified as the fifth edition, or 10th-14th thousand, and includes four plates as called for, plus two original lithographs in text.
The bookseller’s description underlines the range of material bound into the work across its different editions: black paper-covered boards with gilt decoration, framed and lettered covers and spines, and, in the first volume, an original damaged glassine jacket. The later volume is described as being in original black paper-covered boards with gilt-illustrated framing, tan endpapers and a frontispiece etching by Max — the entry truncates the full artist name in the source material. The listing also notes black top edges on the earlier issue and top edges in black on both volumes described.
Struck’s book sits at the intersection of technical manual and artist’s portfolio. The source material presents it as a comprehensive handbook on etching rather than a single-edition illustrated book, and the inclusion of original prints in multiple versions makes the set notable within the bookseller’s art holdings. No exhibition or public program is attached to the listing; it appears as a sale item within the dealer’s new-arrivals email for old and rare books.
The email groups the Struck set with a broad array of recent additions across decorative arts, fine arts, performing arts, history, Judaica, photography, travel and literature. Among the other art-related entries are books on jewelry, wall-papers, exhibition design and modern art, reflecting the site’s emphasis on rare printed material across visual and design fields. Within that broader listing, the Struck handbook is one of the clearest examples of a title whose bibliographic history is inseparable from its artistic content.
The complete set is priced at $4,500 and catalogued as item #55922. A second, separate 1923 fifth edition of ‘Die Kunst des Radierens’ is also listed in the same email under Arts: Fine, but the main item is the complete five-edition set with 27 original prints.
