[MANUSCRIPT] Kneip-Zeitung der FVdAdRA (Freie Vereinigung der Absolventen der Realschule Augsburg) [Free Association of Graduates of the Augsburg High School], 1896-1897

1896-1897. Item #1598

Oblong quarto manuscript (21.5 × 33 cm / 8.5 × 13 inches). 56 leaves. Entirely handwritten in German and extensively illustrated throughout with numerous original pen-and-ink and watercolor drawings, decorative title pages, caricatures, comic-style sequential narratives, satirical scenes, and ornamental calligraphic headings by several anonymous hands. Contemporary three-quarter leather over cloth boards, upper cover gilt-lettered “Kneip-Zeitung,” covers decoratively blind-stamped and fitted with nine brass bosses. Very good condition overall; minor rubbing and wear to binding, internally well preserved with occasional foxing and light handling wear.

A remarkable and visually striking fin-de-siècle German illustrated manuscript periodical produced by the Freie Vereinigung der Absolventen der Realschule Augsburg (FVdAdRA), documenting the social life, humor, rituals, and drinking culture of a late nineteenth-century alumni association in Augsburg. Conceived as an internally circulated satirical “newspaper,” the manuscript combines manuscript journalism, caricature, literary parody, and elaborate graphic design in a highly sophisticated collaborative production.

The volume comprises a sequence of monthly and thematic “issues” spanning October 1896 through September 1897, featuring decorative Jugendstil-inspired title pages, humorous essays, satirical reports, poems in dialect, festival scenes, tavern imagery, mock political commentary, and caricatures of members and bourgeois society. Particularly notable are several sequential narrative illustrations employing progressive action and multi-panel storytelling strongly anticipating early comic-strip conventions.

Price: $1,000.00