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Gerade hab ich eifrig an Ihrem Bismarkschädel [sic] herumgeschabt um ihn nur recht rund heraus zu
kriegen,
2
als Ihre beiden lieben
Briefe kamen.
3
Dank Ihnen tausendmal, so ein Glück! Hab’s grad recht nötig gehabt.
4
– Alles andere mündlich
Herzliche Grüsse Ihrer Frau und
Ihnen von Ihrem dankbaren
[signed:]
Hammer.
11. IX.
25
© Transcription Hedi Siegel & Stephanie Probst, 2022
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I was avidly scraping away at your Bismarck-forehead to make it look nice and round
2
when both of your kind letters arrived.
3
A thousand thanks, such luck! I really
needed it.
4
— All else when we see each
other.
Best wishes to your wife and
to you, from your grateful
[signed:]
Hammer
September 11,
1925
© Translation Hedi Siegel & Stephanie Probst, 2022
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Gerade hab ich eifrig an Ihrem Bismarkschädel [sic] herumgeschabt um ihn nur recht rund heraus zu
kriegen,
2
als Ihre beiden lieben
Briefe kamen.
3
Dank Ihnen tausendmal, so ein Glück! Hab’s grad recht nötig gehabt.
4
– Alles andere mündlich
Herzliche Grüsse Ihrer Frau und
Ihnen von Ihrem dankbaren
[signed:]
Hammer.
11. IX.
25
© Transcription Hedi Siegel & Stephanie Probst, 2022
|
I was avidly scraping away at your Bismarck-forehead to make it look nice and round
2
when both of your kind letters arrived.
3
A thousand thanks, such luck! I really
needed it.
4
— All else when we see each
other.
Best wishes to your wife and
to you, from your grateful
[signed:]
Hammer
September 11,
1925
© Translation Hedi Siegel & Stephanie Probst, 2022
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Footnotes
1 Receipt of this letter is recorded in Schenker’s diary for September 12,
1925: “Von Hammer (Br): dankt für die Unterbringung der Zeichnung.” (“From Hammer
(letter): he thanks [me] for placing the
drawing.”).
2 Hammer’s mezzotint
technique is described by Ulrich Middeldorf: “The mezzotint engraver […] starts with a
dark ground on which he models his forms in white. The dark tone of the ground is produced
on the copper plate by roughening its surface [...] which is done methodically with a
fine-toothed cutting instrument called the rocker. To create lighter tones […] the rough
surface is smoothed by a scraper or burnisher […].” See Victor Hammer: Artist and Printer, compiled by Carolyn R.
Hammer (Lexington, Kentucky: The Anvil Press, 1981); chapter 1,
“Mezzotints,” p. 13. Hammer is working on the second plate he mentioned to
Schenker in his letter OJ 11/36,
[19] of September 1, which may be the one described by Middeldorf (p. 22,
state 4) as “completely reworked with the rocker.”
3 Schenker’s letters
JOB 94-3, [13] of September
8, and JOB 94-3, [14] of
September 9, 1925. Regarding Hammer’s dire financial situation, see Hammer’s letter
OJ 11/36, [19] of September
1, 1925.
4 Schenker’s brother Moriz was the buyer of Hammer’s drawing for the mezzotint portrait, paying 600
Austrian shillings. For details see JOB
94-3, [14], footnote 2.
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Commentary
- Format
-
1p letter, holograph (uncial) salutation, message, valediction, and signature
- Provenance
-
Schenker, Heinrich (document date-1935)--Schenker, Jeanette (1935-c.1942)--Ratz, Erwin (c.1942-c.1945)--Jonas, Oswald (c.1945-1978)--University of California, Riverside (1978--)
- Rights Holder
-
Heirs and representatives of Viktor Hammer
- License
-
Permission to publish granted by the executor of the estate of Carolyn Reading Hammer October 14, 2013. Any claim to intellectual rights on this document should be addressed to the Schenker Documents Online, at schenkercorrespondence (at) mus (dot) cam (dot) uk
Digital version created: 2022-06-23
Last updated: 2011-02-12
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