You are bidding on one handwritten, signed letter of the Swiss architect Christoph Riggenbach (1810-1863).
"After Melchior Berri and Amadeus Merian, Riggenbach was the most important architect in Basel in the 19th century. Century." (Source: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland.)
Dated Basel, the 13th September 1858.
With postmark of the Basel letter expedition from the same day.
Addressed to the history painter Herrmann in Berlin, Schulgartenstr. 6 (provable as history painter, professor and senior teacher JF Herrmann).
Unfortunately the stamp was cut out (at the bottom left in the address field); That's why some words are missing in the text on the back of the letter.
Written in very beautiful, calligraphic script.
Transcription:"My dear friend! To your lovely lines from the 9th. August I'm only answering you today because I've actually only recently heard about the earlier or later needs of the conscious 80 thlr. able to provide information. Can you arrange to send them back to me at the beginning of October without feeling distressed in any way [...] This is desirable because I received an invoice from the lithographer Rey [in Lenz]burg the day before yesterday, which just shows the amount of this sum lent to you. But if it is difficult for you to send it back to Octobre, then I want to see how it can be done, but since you write that from Octobre onwards your affairs will be arranged in such a way that you hope to send mine back to me, so I'll take it that way if it is really quiet can happen on your part. You don't need to write to me any further about this, but I will now wait with you to see how your affairs are in order until October, and only then will I expect your answer at that time, be it with or without the money. If the young friend Oppermann is still in Berlin, I would like to ask him to give him my kindest regards, as well as special greetings to your dear children and friend Pfannschmidt and all your dear ones from your loyal Ch. Riggenbach, architect."
The lithographer mentioned is Rudolf Rey (1814-1897) in Lenzburg, who is proven to have worked for Christoph Riggenbach.
Format: 27.2 x 21.3 cm (folded 9.5 x 13.7 cm).
Condition: Quite thin paper browned and slightly stained. The stamp was cut out; That's why some words are missing in the text on the back of the letter. The name of the author (probably from an autograph collector) was noted in red under the date. bPlease also note the pictures!
Internal note: FM 23-07-23 Autograph Autograph Architecture
About Christoph Riggenbach and Rudolf Rey (source: wikipedia):
Christoph Riggenbach (*23. November 1810 in Basel; † 11. June 1863 ibid) was a Swiss architect.
Life and work: Christoph Riggenbach initially learned the profession of stonemason. At a time when architectural training was not yet academically formalized through studies, he trained as an architect from Georg Moller in Darmstadt from 1832 to 1834. Many young architects from all over the German-speaking world worked for Moller in the 1830s. In the summer of 1834, Riggenbach also attended the Berlin Building Academy, followed by a year-long study visit to Munich and the trip to Italy that was common for many architects and artists at the time. In 1837 he returned to his hometown of Basel.
The planning of the Basel hospital buildings was the main determining factor for his entire 25-year career - Riggenbach died at the age of 52. The buildings of his initial period were very much influenced by the Italian Renaissance, the Quattrocento, such as the Bachofenhaus (1839–1841) and the Domhof. Towards the 1850s, playful, romanticized forms increasingly overshadowed the blocky, strict approach based on Renaissance forms, for example in the house on Missionsstrasse (1850–1851). Neo-Gothic forms were later added, such as in the Elisabethenkirche, which he built according to plans by Ferdinand Stadler (1857–1865) and the neighboring toddler schoolhouse. Nevertheless, one cannot speak of an actual stylistic pluralism in the sense of historicism.
His ecclesiastical and historical interest becomes clear in lectures and reports, such as the restoration report on the Christoffel Tower in Bern.
Works (selection)
Bern government building, project, 1835
Hospital facilities, Basel, 1838–1842, 1857–1860
Bachofenhaus, Münsterplatz 2, Basel, 1839–1841
Domhof, Münsterplatz 12, Basel, 1840–1842
Socin houses, Petersgraben 27 and 29, Basel, 1843–1844
Residential building, St.-Alban–Vorstadt 16, Basel, 1844
New department store, Barfüsserplatz, Basel, 1844–1846 (demolished in 1874)[1]
Villa Solitude, Grenzacherstrasse 206, Basel, 1845–1846
Silk ribbon factory, St-Alban–Kirchrain 10, Basel, 1850–1851
Spalengottesacker Chapel, Basel, 1850–1852 (demolished in 1943)
Estate to the Upper Middle Gundeldingen (Bahofenschlösschen), Basel, 1854 (demolished in 1973)
Elisabethenkirche, Basel, 1857–1863
Rudolf Rey (*27. July 1814 in Möriken, canton of Aargau; † 14. April 1897) was a Swiss lithographer, draftsman and stone printer.
life and work:Rey worked for the lithographer Honegger in Zurich around 1840 and later for Joseph Brodtmann in Schaffhausen. In 1843 he married Catharina, née Sigrist, who came from Schaffhausen, and settled in Lenzburg, where he succeeded Johann Heinrich Triner (1796–1873) as a drawing teacher in Johann Karl Christian Lippe's institute.
From 1846, Rey worked as a self-employed lithographer and stone printer at Lindenplatz in Lenzburg and employed Friedrich Halder, Daniel Hemmann, Conrad Spengler, Heinrich Bebié, Karl Moss and others.
Rey's lithographs appeared, among others, in the New Year's papers of the Zurich City Library in 1866, 1871, 1875 to 1877 and the Zurich Orphanage in 1878; also in the Basel New Year's Papers 1848 to 1851, 1853 to 1860 and in the communications of the Society for Patriotic Antiquities 1845. Rey also created numerous individual sheets based on models by important artists, including Albrecht Dürer's Knight Death and the Devil and Konrad Corradi's The Rhine Falls.