Hughes Auctions
Live Auction

The Damama Estate Collection

Sun, Mar 7, 2021 05:00PM EST
Lot 548

Ludwig & George Wronkow Handmade Illustrated Book 1966

Estimate: $100 - $1,000

Bid Increments

Price Bid Increment
$0 $10
$200 $25
$500 $50
$1,000 $100
$2,000 $250
$5,000 $500
$10,000 $1,000
$20,000 $2,000
$50,000 $5,000
$100,000 $10,000
$500,000 $50,000
Approx. 9 in. x 12 in. 

Hughes Auctions is thrilled to present 29 lots of original handmade Artist Booklets by gifted designers Ludwig and George Wronkow, ranging in date from 1955-1971 (please see other lots offered in this auction). These gifted Jewish-German brothers worked for the left-leaning Mosse Publishing house in Berlin during the 1920’s and 1930’s. They fled Nazi Occupation in 1938 and immigrated to the U.S., becoming involved in New York’s German Language Anti-Nazi newsletter AUFBAU. These delightfully intricate, exuberant and highly creative poetic books were gifts given to each other every year as birthday presents, some containing a blank check for the receiving brother to purchase a new hat. We have not translated the German text, but it seems to be highly personal, humorous, filled with memories of the recent year, and other booklets resemble a complete manuscript for a charming, quirky book. Their subjects are wide ranging. Colorful cartoons, ingenious illustrations, careful collages, hand-lettered poetry and memories really display the love and care these brothers shared for each other. We cannot over-emphasize the delightfulness of this intimate format.