The best printer in Paris

For the Cellini illustrations, Slevogt chooses the technique of ink brush lithography. However, major problems arise during printing in Berlin, in the workshop of M. W. Lassally. Cassirer actually works there regularly, but now an alternative has to be found.

Ultimately, the renowned workshop of Auguste Clot in Paris is commissioned for the printing work. The 314 test prints that have been preserved illustrate just how difficult the path to perfect quality is. Many carry handwritten notes on the individual print conditions. This bound blind volume documents the process, too.

The result is excellent ink lithographs, printed on the hand press. They appear in a fine portfolio edition.

Without the accompanying text, the images detach themselves from their illustrative function. They thus become works of art in their own right.

The pages are printed on fine Chinese paper. A blind stamp confers particular exclusivity. And thus, the Cellini graphics become sought-after collector’s items and investment pieces.

A letter to Slevogt dated 15 September 1913 records just how carefully Bruno Cassirer checked the prints for the best result
 

Dear Slevogt,

I have now looked through all the new prints from Clot and am very pleasantly surprised. They are almost invariably better than the proofs and are generally excellent results. I will now proceed to arrange them into portfolios and somehow tack them together.

The printing of the book edition has begun. So, I want to issue the book in deliveries and am getting started now with the advertising. In KuK [Art Magazine named Kunst und Künstler, i.e. Art and Artists], I am printing chapter X with 6 lithographs, and Lassally’s preparatory work for this will be of benefit in the printing of the book. He has succeeded in getting more out of the stones than in the first attempts supervised by Clot. I check every reprint, and the result is quite good, although of course the ideal print isn’t possible. In any case, the work for the magazine was a good preparatory exercise for Lassally, and I am now very happy to know that all difficulties have finally been overcome.

Mr Clot took advantage for himself as much as possible in the final invoicing, and charged me fat sums for corrections, etc.; but at the same time, he assures me that he thinks back to the Berlin trip with great pleasure!

[…] How long will you stay there? Hopefully you and your wife have already recovered well.

With best regards, Bruno Cassirer