Original 1940 Sulamith Wülfing Calendar Die Goldene Kugel Full Year German Art Fantasy Illustration
This is a complete original 1940 edition of Die Goldene Kugel (“The Golden Sphere”), an illustrated calendar by German artist Sulamith Wülfing, published by Sulamith Wülfing-Verlag in Wuppertal-Elberfeld, Germany.
The calendar contains all twelve months for the year 1940 and features a beautiful combination of tipped-in full colour prints and black-and-white illustrations printed directly on the pages. The imagery is classic Wülfing: mystical children, fairy tale figures, angels, mountain spirits, medieval symbolism, and dreamlike fantasy scenes rendered in her highly distinctive romantic style.
The artwork includes titles such as Dornröschen (“Sleeping Beauty”), Der Berggeist (“The Mountain Spirit”), Die Flamme (“The Flame”), and Die Wurzelweiber (“The Root Women”). The black-and-white pages are equally atmospheric, with delicate snowflake imagery and fantastical procession scenes.
Produced in Germany on the eve of the Second World War, this calendar is an especially evocative example of prewar German fantasy illustration and spiritual/esoteric art publishing. Original Wülfing calendars from this period are increasingly sought after by collectors of fairy tale illustration, Jugendstil-inspired art, German graphics, and mystical imagery.
Details
Maker / Artist: Sulamith Wülfing
Title: Die Goldene Kugel
Publisher: Sulamith Wülfing-Verlag
Place of publication: Wuppertal-Elberfeld, Germany
Year: 1940
Language: German
Format: Hanging / tabletop calendar
Illustration types: tipped-in colour prints and black-and-white printed illustrations
Measurements
Measures approximately 7 7/8” by 10 3/4”.
Condition
Complete with all twelve months for the year 1940 present. The calendar remains in very good condition overall. The original tabletop easel support on the reverse is missing. The perforated attachment areas for the cover and descriptive introductory page are partially torn. Light general handling and age wear are present, consistent with age. The artwork displays very well.
Translation of the introductory page
“In the ancient world of legend and fairy tale — forever renewed in meaning and interpretation — the eternal struggle between good and evil, light and darkness, seeking and finding unfolds.
In the childhood of peoples, when animals and plants, water and earth, sun, moon and stars had not yet become subjects of mathematical calculation, chemical formulas, and cataloguing research, but instead stood in living relationship to one another and to mankind, humanity sought and found its way to all things and their deep mysteries.
This occurred by giving all things human form and human thought, tracing back the path of development, transforming itself into an animal, a tree, a stone, or a spring, and waiting thousands of years for redemption and release.
Thus for the one who has preserved the deep gift of transformation and transposition, the gnarled tree becomes a giant, the blossom a princess, sisters of the moor arise from brushwood and witches from grey braids, forest spirits dwell in rootwork, armored dragons lurk in wild rock crevices, woodland beings stumble through dark forest paths searching for magical herbs, the mountain spirit offers the treasures of the earth, and the Sunday child discovers the philosopher’s stone and the root that reveals all mysteries.”
— Otto Schulze, Elberfeld
For the Year 1940
This is a rare piece - an original 1940 calendar published in Germany by Sulamith Wülfing herself during WWII. Very desirable….