Der Stil in den technischen und tektonischen Künsten, oder praktische Aesthetik.

Kunst und Wissenschaft; Bruckmann’s Verlag, Frankfurt; München, 1860; 1863

First edition of Semper’s magnum opus.

Description: 2 vols. quarter green calf with paper covered boards, gilt titles and decoration to spine, raised bands. Octavo: 23 × 16 cm; pp. (vol.1) [1], xliii, 525, [2], 15 pls.; (vol.2) [4], 589, [2], [5] pls. Illustrated with a total of 20 chromolithographs and 364 illustrations printed in the text. All edges marbled.

Provenance: On each front fly-leaf a small blind stamp of Franz K. Bernhofer, Baumeister, Horn.

Condition: Corners are bumped and covers are lightly worn, spine shows some wear. Contents foxed in places, with occasional pencil markings.

Notes: Der Stil is generally regarded as Semper’s magnum opus. In it, Semper discusses in detail the emerging industrial production and the factors that determine the artistic process. Semper tried to prove that the form of an ornament was the result of the technique used to make it, and that machine-made objects had a different expression to those made by hand. Semper was also opposed to modern materialism. For him, the function of a building had to be expressed as a whole in the combination of ground plan, facade and ornament, and not merely as a display of materials and decoration. A planned third volume on architecture unfortunately remained a fragment.