8. Hans Sebald Beham (1500-1550)
or Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528)
Bookplate with the Arms of Hector Pömer

(click on image to print)
Beham or Dürer, Bookplate

Bookplate with the Arms of Hector Pömer

Woodcut, 1525, 288 x 189 mm., Bartsch 163 (as Dürer), Pauli 1352 (as Beham). Fine impression, showing the same losses in the borderline as other impressions seen, on thin, brownish, laid paper with an indecipherable watermark, and thread margins outside the borderline. The work was originally catalogued by Bartsch as Dürer. Pauli claimed it as H. S. Beham, which has been maintained for many years, Opinion may now be shifting back to Dürer. The monogram at the base of the design is that of the block cutter (formschneider), believed to be Hieronymous Andreä, sometimes called Resch, who is best known as the cutter of Dürer's huge Triumphal Arch woodcut and esteemed as one of the finest cutters of his time. However, none of the other blocks known to have been cut by Andreä bear this monogram. To further complicate matters, Andreä is also known to have worked with Beham. Pömer was provost of the Church of St. Lawrence in Nuremberg in 1525 and would presumably have been acquainted with both Dürer and Beham. St. Lawrence, his patron, is pictured here holding up the shield of the Pömer family and in the four corners are the shields of related families. The print is believed to be the earliest dated German bookplate.

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