Jun 05, 2008 - Sale 2148

Sale 2148 - Lot 47

Price Realized: $ 270
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 300 - $ 400
(ARTIFICIAL LANGUAGE.) Gased Bevünetik. Numbers 1-12 [all issued]. 8vo, bound together in contemporary 1/2 morocco; bookplate of Edwin Davis French on front pastedown. St. Louis, 1890

Additional Details

Volapük was an artificial language developed by J. M. Schleyer; the first published work in the language appeared in 1879. The vocabulary was based on English and various Romance languages, with grammatical structure based on a German model. This periodical was produced in St. Louis by Thomas Smith. This complete set of the journal belonged to American artist and engraver Edwin D. French. The artist had bound in a three-page manuscript index in English listing the various articles and contributors, with his own contributions far more plentiful than those of any other writer. Additionally, scattered interleavings contain mounted contemporary newspaper articles relating to the language. 3 Autograph Letters Signed from Smith to French are also bound in, one of them with its Volapük translation appended.