Fünf Radierungen. [Portfolio of five signed drypoint etchings, each with its own mount, one of an edition of fifty.]

Number 17 in an edition of 50. Very good in slightly grubby portfolio. The portfolio is half-bound in black buckram with grey paper boards, dimensions 34 x 27 cm. On front board: 'JOSEF SCHWARZMANN | FÜNF RADIERUNGEN'. Dimensions of mounts and letterpress leaves (in thick cream wove paper) 32 x 25 cm. Initial bifolium consists of title and contents leaves, the latter giving the titles of the five engravings as: '1. Sitzender Junge', '2. Portrait H. W.', '3. Portrait L.', '4. Bäuerin' and '5. Landschaft'. (It is not clear which is which between numbers 2 and 3.) A single leaf follows, signed in pencil by Schwarzmann and numbered by him 17, with the following details: 'Diese Mappe wurde im Mai 1930 gedruckt in den Werkstätten der Vereinigten Staatsschulen für freie und angewandte Kunst, Berlin, in einer Auflage von fünfzig numerierten und signierten Exemplaren'. The etchings are each printed on a leaf of Kupferdruck-Bütten paper, 28.5 x 19 cm, each tipped-in on the recto of the second leaf of a bifolium, with the first leaf with a rectangular cut-out making the mount. Each engraving is signed in pencil by Schwarzmann, the dimensions being as follows. One: 11.5 x 17.5 cm, landscape. Two (? man with glasses): 17.5 x 11.5 cm, portrait. Three (? head and shoulders portrait of a man): 13 x 6.5 cm, portrait. Four: 15.5 x 12 cm, portrait. Five: 11.5 x 17 cm, landscape. The first etching, showing a seated boy, carries echoes of Grosz, with the other work in a more traditional style. Striking and sensitive work by an unjustly-neglected artist, and eminently suitable for display. Excessively scarce: no record on COPAC or WorldCat.