Atelier Zweig is proud to represent Heribert Tenschert in the U.S.
Rare books & manuscripts
The first appearance of an idea. The copy that survived. The hands through which it passed.
Atelier Zweig brings together rare books and manuscripts that make cultural history tangible. To collect them is to take part in their continuing story.
Atelier Zweig & Heribert TenschertAs Heribert Tenschert’s representative in the United States, we bring collectors closer to the books he has brought together: illuminated manuscripts, early printing and the great private presses. Our Goethe catalogue gives that partnership a tangible form, connecting the first appearance of a work with the individual copy a collector can hold and acquire.
Enter the Goethe storyAvailable to acquire · 1771
His Strasbourg theses, preserved in the original wrappers, entirely uncut and unopened. The catalogue records about ten surviving copies, almost all in institutions.
A philosophy made tangible
A great work gives a book its significance. Rarity makes the encounter uncommon. Preservation and provenance bring us closer to the moment—and the people—that made it.
See the philosophy in our notable sales →Daemonic and Incommensurable
Four centuries of Goethe, from the Heribert Tenschert Collection.
Notable sales
These sold works show what the pursuit means in practice: an important text, an exceptional surviving copy, and a new chapter in its collecting history.
Sold · Goethe · 1774
The first printing of the novel that made Goethe famous, in the deluxe issue on strong paper. Here the moment of literary arrival meets exceptional preservation.
The catalogue describes this copy: “On strong and entirely spotless paper, exceptionally fresh.”
Read about this sold copy ↗Heribert Tenschert CollectionContinue with the Bremer Presse Urfaust · $3,000 →
Sold · Doves Press · 1906 & 1910
Both parts, each one of only twenty-five copies printed on vellum. The Doves Press gave Goethe’s lifelong work a new material expression: black-and-red typography, generous proportions and signed Doves Bindery vellum.
The catalogue describes “near-pristine; apart from minimal flecking to the head- and fore-edges, an otherwise immaculate copy”.
Read about this sold copy ↗Heribert Tenschert CollectionContinue with the Doves Press Lieder · $65,000 →The Goethe collection · A story in three encounters
Goethe returned to Faust across his life. These books let us follow its transformation: from the chapbooks behind the legend to the first public fragment, then back to the earliest text through the work of a great private press.
Sold · I · The legend · 1589–1597
Three early Faust and Wagner chapbooks preserve the world from which the legend emerged. The catalogue identifies two as unique survivals. Their importance here is the connection: they bring the reader close to the printed tradition Goethe would transform.
1589; 1596; 1597 · The Inspiration for Goethe’s “Faust”: All three “Volksbücher” of Faust and Wagner, Two of them Unique
Heribert Tenschert CollectionAvailable · II · The work in formation · 1790
The first Faust to reach the public arrived as Ein Fragment. This separate issue preserves the work before the architecture of the 1808 tragedy. It offers something a later collected edition cannot: an encounter with the work while it was still taking shape.
1790 · The first separate edition of Faust: Ein Fragment
Available · III · Rediscovery · 1920
The Bremer Presse returned to Goethe’s earliest surviving Faust text. One of 270 copies, this is printed on handmade paper and bound in vellum by Frieda Thiersch. A later act of craftsmanship carries an earlier moment of creation forward.
1920 · The Bremer Presse Urfaust, one of 270, in signed Frieda Thiersch vellum
The next chapter is yours
Follow an author, a question, a provenance or a particular craft. Explore the available works below, or tell us what you are seeking.
Combine groups to narrow your search. Counts refer to matching pieces.
The posthumous first separate edition of Faust II, completed by Goethe shortly before his death$24,000View full listing ↗Heribert Tenschert Collection
The Birth of the Freudian Slip: Freud’s Psychopathology of Everyday Life, First Book Edition$2,500View full listing ↗
For My Ivy League Friends (1984) — Bukowski's Signed & Corrected Manuscript Poem — The Publisher's (John Martin's) Copy with his Red-Pencil Pre-Publication Interventions$2,400View full listing ↗
Artist’s copy · Signed by DalíSalvador Dalí's Only Novel$2,650View full listing ↗![LEE, Harper. To Kill a Mockingbird. Philadelphia and New York: Harper & Row, [1993] — Signed and Inscribed by Harper Lee, dated 1993](https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0736/1285/3436/files/01_jacket_front_7b212549-9346-4360-b025-f6516f375d01.jpg?v=1784802824&width=700)
Inscribed by Harper LeeLEE, Harper. To Kill a Mockingbird. Philadelphia and New York: Harper & Row, [1993] — Signed and Inscribed by Harper Lee, dated 1993$1,500View full listing ↗
Renaissance law in a reader’s marginsSebastiano Vanzi’s Renaissance Legal Treatise — The First Aldine Edition, Annotated by a 16th-Century Lawyer$1,250View full listing ↗
Publisher’s copy · One of tenOscar Wilde’s La Maison de la Courtisane$3,000View full listing ↗
One of 100 · Carl Sonntag bindingOne of one hundred of the West-östlicher Divan, in a ravishing signed Carl Sonntag master binding$8,000View full listing ↗Heribert Tenschert Collection
Torquato Tasso: The first separate edition$14,500View full listing ↗Heribert Tenschert Collection
Quotations from Chairman Mao — Mao zhuxi yulu — The August 1965 Army Edition in Printed Wrappers, with the Lin Biao Leaf$2,500View full listing ↗
Das Römische Carneval: the famously rare first edition, entirely uncut and preserving both illustrated wrappers$90,000View full listing ↗Heribert Tenschert Collection
The Unique Vellum Mer des Croniques Illuminated for King Francis IPrice on requestView full listing ↗Heribert Tenschert CollectionPrices in USD. Photographs show the actual copies. Availability checked 11 October 2026; full descriptions, condition and provenance notes appear in each listing.