Ramsamperl; Eine Geschichte für Kinder.

1903. Wien; A. Pichlers Witwe & Sohn. [1903]. Small folio; red cloth-backed grey pictorial boards, illustrated to both cover; pp. [ii], 3-32; every page designed and illustrated in 3 colours by letterpress and photolithography by Anton Josef von Kenner; a very nice copy of a rare book; sometime carefully recased retaining the original cloth spine, with a small, and skilful, restoration to top fore-corner of lower cover, and some wear to the others, inner hinges cracked with some adjacent abrasion to pastedowns, internally generally clean and very sound with some marginal thumbing, a few light marks and spots, and a couple of very short closed tears to lower edge. First edition, an ink inscription, apparently by Anton von Kenner, in German, to the title-page translates as "To the children of the esteemed J.N. Further this book is dedicated in the name of the authors. Proof copy". A renowned picture book which C.F. Heller classifies as "Bose Buben", or literature in the Struwwelpeter tradition Rather grotesque images illustrate the rhyming story about the evil figure of Ramsamperl, who is the son of the devil Pelzmertel, and also Evchen, a disobedient girl who metamorphoses into a pure girl through a long process of transformation. The pictures show the characters from a very close perspective, which is striking and unsettling. Anton von Kenner was an Austrian artist who studied at the Viennese College of Arts and Crafts and taught there between 1894 and 1937, and again between 1941 and 1950. The institution boasts Anton Kolig and Oskar Kokoschka among its most famous pupils. Ramsamperl is an interesting Secessionist work which was showcased in a national exhibition of Austrian book illustration in 1995 called "Ramsamperl and Klicketick, Austrian Picture Books from 1900 to today". Only 2 copies listed on OCLC/WorldCat (Oxford and the German National Library).