The price of art - How expensive was a storybook?

Max Slevogt illustrates many Grimm’s fairy tales classics for Bruno Cassirer. An anthology is available for a reasonable 3.50 Reichsmarks.

In addition to these volumes, lesser-known fairy tales are also published in elaborate individual editions. One of them is King Thrushbeard.

The drawings are interspersed with the text in the book edition. They are also published as a limited portfolio edition. This comes in an elegant half-parchment box with an illustration on the lid.

The price is between 250 and 300 Reichsmarks. This means that these editions are no longer suitable as children’s books but rather have become collector’s items and investment pieces.

Slevogt’s humour is immediately evident in the opening drawing for King Thrushbeard. The king’s party invitation is given not to the fairy tale characters but to Bruno Cassirer himself.

The close bond between the artist and the publisher is also evident in the way the profit is handled. Slevogt is donating his fee from the book edition of King Thrushbeard to the employees of the publishing house.

In a letter dated 29 March 1922, Bruno Cassirer thanks Max Slevogt for the generous gift to his employees.

Dear Slevogt,

It was so kind of you to decide that the profit from the book edition of the “The King Thrushbeard” fairy tale illustrated by you with 9 original lithographs should benefit the employees in my office.

I would like to express my sincere thanks once again for this extraordinary kindness, and I would like to specify your wish for this agreement as follows:

The “King Thrushbeard” fairy tale with its 9 original pen and ink lithographs will be published in a one-off edition of about 360 copies on handmade paper. The lithographs are printed into the text by hand. The income from this publication, minus the production and distribution costs, will go entirely to the employees in my office.

In addition, an edition of about 50 copies of the lithographs without text in a portfolio is to be published. You will sign each lithograph in this edition. You will receive 50% of the proceeds of this issue and I myself will receive 50%.

You agree that the drawings for this fairy tale will be reproduced in line etchings and that the fairy tale with the line etchings will be included in my collection “The Fairy Tale Book” along with other fairy tales that you illustrate.

Best regards, your most devoted Bruno Cassirer