Vin

4971 — Photographers and compiler uncredited. Large album format 30 x 23.5 cm. 23 leaves 19 with black-&-white photographs. Captions in English.Collection of photographs dating variously from the middle years of the last century assembled evidently for an English-speaking audience and providing an overview of the cellar maturation monitoring and bottling operations of the German sparkling wine specialist Henkell & Co. Famously known as the Schloß palace the complex on view was built in the Wiesbaden suburb of Biebrich between 1907 and 1909 by the architect Paul Bonatz 1877-1956 to the specifications of Otto Henkell 1869-1929. Henkel & Co. more than weathered World War II. It does not appear that the family sought ties with the National Socialists but they didn't have to. Otto's daughter Anna Elisabeth Annalies 1896-1973 married the future NS foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop who became a principal investor in the firm. It is worth remembering that Germans have always appreciated sparkling wine and a great deal of it was drunk in the domestic market during war time especially after the regime abolished the tax on Deutscher Sekt and Schaumwein. In 1952 Annalies petitioned for her son Rudolf to regain partial control of the company and the West German courts ruled in their favor. Henkell & Co. continued to produce Henkell Trocken under its own name until the sale of the winery in 1986. Little is ascertainable regarding the origins of the album. Otto Henkel--the elder Otto's nephew son of his brother Karl--is present in the portrait collection of company managers on the final leaf of photographs but his presence spans many years. The vintage labels have not yet been applied to bottles shown in a production line on photograph fifteen. Possibly automobiles of ca. 1950--including a white roadster--are depicted in an aerial photograph of the Schloß though sufficient details are undiscernable. And a Bizerbo scale shown in the seventeenth photograph was no longer maufactured by 1951 though of course it may have been in use well before being captured by the photographer. Unique; well-mounted and artful arrangement of professional images celebrating a revered German wine house very likely as it looked before during and immediately after the Second World War. Buff paper age-toned. Brown paper wrappers lightly worn sewn with a brown cord; head and foot of spine lightly chipped. Helmut Arntz. Für ihre Probe deutscher Sekt. Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner 1979; Fritz von Ostini. Der Prachtbau der Sektkellerei Henkell & Co. erbaut von Paul Bonatz mit Haus Henkell in Wiesbaden. Darmstadt: Koch 1920; Michael Weisser. Deutsche Reklame: 100 Jahre Werbung 1870-1970. Munich: Edition Deutsche Reklame 1985. includes chapter on Henkell & Co.'s advertising. unknown books