Földvári Books

Toroczkai-Wigand, Ede

Hajdanába, régös-régön. [Long, Long Time Ago.]

Budapest: Táltos (Világosság), 1917. With 16 full page illustrations. First edition. Title page in red and black. Initials printed in red. In original illustrated hard paper. Presentation copy. 12 p. and 16 plates. In fine condition.

This work of Toroczkai-Wigand starts with a short poem, the national epic of the Székelys (Hungarian people in Transylvania), about Prince Csaba, the youngest son of Attila, the King of the Huns and his mother, Réka. The 16 illustrations are showing the buildings and the interiors related to the story, in the special Transylvanian Art Nouveau style.

Ede Toroczkai-Wigand (1869–1945) was a Hungarian architect and designer of decorative art. The thoughts of John Ruskin and the Arts and Crafts Movement had a major influence on him. Toroczkai-Wigand had the idea that art, architecture, folk customs and language is a complex structure and this complexity and “holism” reflecting in the unique character of his works.

Beside being a prolific architect and designer, who was awarded at many international exhibitions (Paris, 1900; Torino, 1902; St. Louis, 1904), Toroczkai-Wigand published bibliophilic books, partly on his art and partly about the art, architecture and the folk tales of the Székelys in Transylvania. In these publications he combined the content and the typography of the print into a special unity, in the manner of the unique Transylvanian Art Nouveau style.

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Price: €500.00