Forum Auctions
Lot 75
Chess.- Friedmann (David) Koepfe beruehmter Schachmeister, one of 50 copies, 12 lithograph portraits only (of 14), each signed in pencil by the artist and within mounts as issued, lithograph vignette title (browned and chipped), limitation leaf and text leaf, all loose as issued in original portfolio, some mounts worn, one badly stained, but portraits generally clean, original vellum-backed decorative boards with title label to upper cover, folio, [?Berlin], c.1923.⁂ It is believed that only 6 sets, including this one, of the original 50 copies survive, at least 2 of which are incomplete and 3 of which are in institutional collections. Friedmann (1893-1980) studied painting with Lovis Corinth and graphic arts with Hermann Struck. He served as a war artist for the Austro-Hungarian army in WW1 and afterwards became a successful portraitist. In 1938 he fled to Prague with his wife and young daughter leaving behind his art collection but in 1941 the family were deported to the Lodz Ghetto in Poland. The gestapo confiscated over 2000 of his drawings, watercolours and oils in Berlin and Prague. He was separated from his family in August 1944, deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau and other concentration camps, survived but tragically his family did not. He became an American citizen in 1960, dropping the second 'n' in his surname and continued producing art and portraits. The subjects of this portfolio are Lasker, Rubinstein, Selesnieff, Bernstein, Tarrasch, Tartakower, Gruenfeld, Bogoljubow, Wolf, Reti, Spielmann and Teichmann, The portraits of Euwe and Walter are missing. Teichmann and Bernstein (whose names are on slips pasted over 2 other original names in the contents list) were not participants in the 1923 Ostrava international tournament on which the idea for the portfolio was first based. Various print-outs of articles and references to the portfolio, including letters from Friedmann's daughter about other copies, are included in the lot.
