Press release -
Brandes' Unique Album Amicorum Under the Hammer
Brandes' unique and monumental album with a wealth of personal greetings from the great thinkers of contemporary Europe will soon be under the hammer at Bruun Rasmussen in Copenhagen with an estimate of DKK 800,000-1,000,000 (€ 110,000-135,000).
On Tuesday, 19 September a unique album with a special Danish provenance will be up for auction. The content was collected by Georg Brandes' daughter Edith Brandes (1879-1968) and provides a unique insight into the large and colourful social circles of one of Denmark's truly internationally famous intellectual figures.
"Each page in the book tells its own story. Brandes was not only the instigator of the Modern Breakthrough in Denmark and Scandinavia. He was also a distinct figure beyond the borders of Denmark and constantly met with other European celebrities in Europe's different capitals – and the highly comprehensive content of the album amicorum is an invaluable and very exciting proof of this," says book specialist Lærke Bøgh.
The album came about in the years from 1890-1940 and consists of more than 250 original contributions in the form of letters, photographs, autographs, drawings, pieces of music sheets and more. It contains a plethora of names that invoke the presence of history such as Edvard Grieg, Claude Monet, Albert Einstein, Henrik Ibsen, Henry James, Thomas Mann, John Stuart Mill, Emile Zola, Auguste Rodin, Selma Lagerlöf, Fridtjof Nansen, Henrik Pontoppidan, Herman Bang, P.S. Krøyer and many, many more.
The beautiful album was originally given to the Brandes family by a Russian princess, and during the course of several decades it became Brandes' daughter, Edith, who decided to gather memories and testimonies of her father's famous stature and friendships.
Edith Brandes’ album is estimated at DKK 800,000-1,000,000 and will be sold in Bruun Rasmussen’s saleroom in Bredgade on Tuesday, 19 September. The preview will take place from Thursday, 14 September to Monday, 18 September.
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Bruun Rasmussen Auctioneers is one of Scandinavia’s leading international auction houses, and one of Denmark’s oldest. It all started on 6 October 1948, when Arne Bruun Rasmussen conducted the first traditional auction in the saleroom at Bredgade 33 in Copenhagen. Today, Jesper Bruun Rasmussen stands at the helm of the family-run business together with the third generation of the family, his son Frederik and daughter Alexa, and the company’s CEO Jakob Dupont.
In 2004, the first online auction was launched, and today the auction house has expanded to include departments in Copenhagen and Aarhus and representations in Sweden, Germany, France, Belgium, Luxemburg, Spain, Italy, Thailand and the US. About 100,000 lots are put up for auction each year at the traditional auctions and daily online auctions. Here you can bid on everything from art, antiques, modern design and jewellery to books, coins, stamps, wine and weaponry.
