Front Wrapper (in frame): L’ICONOGRAPHIE | D’ANTOINE VAN DYCK | D’APRÈS | LES RECHERCHES DE H. WEBER | PAR | LE Dr. FR. WIBIRAL | Avec six planches représentant de vieux filigranes | {publisher’s device} | LEIPZIG | ALEXANDER DANZ | LIBRAIRE ET MARCHAND D’ESTAMPES | 1877 ||
Title-page: L’ICONOGRAPHIE | D’ANTOINE VAN DYCK | D’APRÈS | LES RECHERCHES DE H. WEBER | PAR | LE Dr. FR. WIBIRAL | Avec six planches représentant de vieux filigranes | {publisher’s device} | LEIPZIG | ALEXANDER DANZ | LIBRAIRE ET MARCHAND D’ESTAMPES | 1877 | PARIS: HAAR & STEINERT, LIBRAIRE, 9, RUE JACOB | VIENNE: C. J. WAWRA, MARCHAND D’ESTAMPES, 7, PLANCKENGASSE
Author: Franz Wibiral (Austrian, fl. 19th century)
Based on the research of: Hermann Weber (German, 1817–1854)
Title: L’Iconographie d’Antoine van Dyck d’après les recherches de Hermann Weber
Place of publication / Publisher / Date: Leipzig: Alexander Danz, Libraire et Marchand d’Estampes, 1877
Pagination: [10] prelims + 188 pp. + [4] colophon and errata (202 pages total)
Collation:
– Frontispiece portrait of Van Dyck with protective tissue
– 5 unnumbered prelim leaves, including half-title and title-page
– Octavo signatures: 1–12⁸, including final errata
– Includes six folding plates (filigrane tables) inserted at the end
– Total: 101 leaves
Size: 8vo, 272 × 195 mm
Binding: Custom binding by a later owner: half red morocco over red buckram boards; spine and corners in morocco, original printed front wrapper bound in
Illustrations: Engraved frontispiece portrait; 6 folding photomechanical plates showing watermark examples (tableaux des filigranes)
Printer: Imprimerie W. Drugulin à Leipzig
Contents:
– Detailed account of Van Dyck’s Iconographie, editions, and history
– Catalogue raisonné of etchings and engraved portraits
– Study of paper types and watermarks
– Full register of sitters and subjects depicted
Artist: Anthony van Dyck (Dutch, 1599-1641)
Provenance (black collector’s stamp to flyleaf):
Raphaël Grigorievitch Goldberg (Russian-Jewish, 1880-1942) [Рафаэль Григорьевич Гольдберг]
Engineer by training, Raphaël Grigorievitch Goldberg spent his entire life in Saint Petersburg, where he earned a reputation as a discerning collector of drawings, prints, and bronzes. Between 1909 and 1911, he worked as a mechanical engineer for the Saint Petersburg joint-stock company Art Copell. From 1925 to 1927, he served as a researcher at the Institute of Economic Studies, and in 1927, held a trusted position at the Russia-Austria Joint-Stock Company (Russ-Avsttorg). By 1929, he was working as an engineer at the Polytechnic Institute.
In 1927, Goldberg sold his first print collection, which included 84 Rembrandt etchings. Yet according to several sources, by 1939, he still possessed a substantial collection of works on paper and was well regarded among his fellow collectors.
His collector’s mark is distinctive: an oval cartouche depicting a rampant lion grasping a serpent, printed in white on black, with the motto “QVOD CVPIO CAPIO” (“What I desire, I seize”) and the initials R.G. beneath. A reversed version—black on white—is also known, sometimes accompanied by a pencilled note: R. Goldberg. Not all works from his collection bear this mark; some instead carry a pencil annotation such as Collection de R. Goldberg | 1929.
The mark appears, for example, on two etchings by C.W.E. Dietrich in the State Hermitage Museum (Le Baptême de l’eunuque, inv. OG-303144 and Saint Jacques prêchant, inv. OG-303145), and on a Bolognese drawing from the second half of the 16th century (Gigante di Piazza di Bologna, Pushkin Museum, inv. P. 14096).
