![[GOETHE, Johann Wolfgang von (1749-1832)]. 'Denckmahl meiner Freunde und Freundinen', the album amicorum (Stammbuch) of Margaretha Beltzer, Strasbourg, Paris and other places, 1802-1832, including an inscription by Goethe's first great love, Friederike Brion.](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2017/CKS/2017_CKS_14301_0034_000(goethe_johann_wolfgang_von_denckmahl_meiner_freunde_und_freundinen_the024221).jpg?w=1)
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[GOETHE, Johann Wolfgang von (1749-1832)]. 'Denckmahl meiner Freunde und Freundinen', the album amicorum (Stammbuch) of Margaretha Beltzer, Strasbourg, Paris and other places, 1802-1832, including an inscription by Goethe's first great love, Friederike Brion.
In German, French and English (2), 119 leaves, 119 x 195mm, bearing 107 manuscript entries, illustrated with approx. 15 drawings (most in colour, one with an ingenious cut-paper cover), three engravings, one needlework panel, index. Contemporary red morocco gilt. Provenance: the title signed 'Margaretha Beltzer von Strasburg'; leather label inside upper cover with initials 'M.W.', 1800; inscriptions in German on front free endpaper indicating it had remained within the same family until at least 1967.
Friederike Brion's inscription in this Alsatian friendship book is dated at Rothau on 22 Messidor in year 10 of the French Revolutionary calendar (i.e. 11 July 1802); it is followed by an inscription by her sister, Sophie. The 21-year old Goethe was studying law at Strasbourg when he met Friederike Brion (1752-1813), the daughter of a clergyman in nearby Sessenheim in October 1770. Their love affair, which lasted into the summer of the following year, took place at a crucial period in his personal and artistic development, and inspired his Sesenheimer Lieder. Friederike was heartbroken at the end of the relationship, and never married: after her father's death, she lived with her brother, Christian, in the parsonage of nearby Rothau, from where she dates her inscription.
In German, French and English (2), 119 leaves, 119 x 195mm, bearing 107 manuscript entries, illustrated with approx. 15 drawings (most in colour, one with an ingenious cut-paper cover), three engravings, one needlework panel, index. Contemporary red morocco gilt. Provenance: the title signed 'Margaretha Beltzer von Strasburg'; leather label inside upper cover with initials 'M.W.', 1800; inscriptions in German on front free endpaper indicating it had remained within the same family until at least 1967.
Friederike Brion's inscription in this Alsatian friendship book is dated at Rothau on 22 Messidor in year 10 of the French Revolutionary calendar (i.e. 11 July 1802); it is followed by an inscription by her sister, Sophie. The 21-year old Goethe was studying law at Strasbourg when he met Friederike Brion (1752-1813), the daughter of a clergyman in nearby Sessenheim in October 1770. Their love affair, which lasted into the summer of the following year, took place at a crucial period in his personal and artistic development, and inspired his Sesenheimer Lieder. Friederike was heartbroken at the end of the relationship, and never married: after her father's death, she lived with her brother, Christian, in the parsonage of nearby Rothau, from where she dates her inscription.
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