The binding of a 1908 edition of Nietzsche’s 'Also Sprach Zarathustra' sold for €82,000 (£72,160) at Ketterer Kunst.
On top of the price list at €245,000 (£215,600) was a 1513 Strassburg edition of the Ptolemaeus Geographie… with its 27 double-page woodcut maps, all bar one of them double-page.
Illustrated above is an exceptional binding, made for a 1908 edition of Nietzsche’s Also sprach Zarathustra. It sold for a much higher than predicted €82,000 (£72,160).
The gilt lettered binding of dark blue and reddish brown morocco was made by Otto Dorfner after a design by Henry van de Velde, who also designed the ornamental half-titles as well as the head and tail pieces.
The binding had in recent times undergone some minor restoration.
