About the cover:

Full leather binding

Moss-green marocco leather, hand-gilt longitudinal title on smooth spine, symmetrical decoration in eight different leather overlays on front cover, barbered edges, hand-stitched silk endpapers, mirror and flyleaf of moss-green Ingres paper.

(Contents somewhat foxed throughout, defective hinged case discarded). Edwin Heim 2016: ‘I realised the cover in 1974 during my second stay in Paris at Atelier Altermatt. After my return to Switzerland, the volume was acquired by an American collector named Norman Strauss."

About the content:

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: Chinese-German seasons and times of day

with 14 original etchings by Imre Reiner

Ex- No. 72 of 120 on handmade Richard-de-Bas paper, signed by the artist, Centro del bel libro, Ascona 1969

This work by Goethe is a collection of poems that combines motifs from Chinese, German and Persian poetry. It was written in 1827 and first published in Berlin in 1830.

Imre Reiner was a Hungarian-Swiss painter and graphic artist and an important type designer.

About the artist: Edwin Heim chose his profession because of his desire to learn a creative craft. After his apprenticeship as a manual binder in Aarau, he deepened his knowledge at the Scuola d'arte per legatori artistici in Ascona and with Ole Olsen in Copenhagen. He then attended the gilding class at the École Estienne in Paris. After his return to Switzerland, Joseph Stemmle entrusted him with the management of the Legatoria at the Centro del bel libro in Ascona. From 1984, he trained specialists from all over the world at the Scuola des cbl ascona for around 25 years.

At the same time, he was a guest lecturer and expert juror in Switzerland and abroad and took part in numerous exhibitions and competitions himself. He has received numerous awards and honours. Today he lives and works as a freelancer in Ascona.