The book
Raphael Kirchner's Postcards

Foreword

The previous edition, published in 2020, sold out and it was not possible to meet all the requests, especially from those arriving from non-European countries, due to the high shipping costs and customs procedures.

We have therefore decided to publish the new updated edition through Amazon's print-on-demand service. This allows us to drastically reduce shipping costs and eliminate customs procedures, because the book is printed in the buyer's country. However, this also means that the quality of the printing and paper is not the same all over the world. But this is not an art book, it is a reference guide for collectors and enthusiasts, the result of research work by Pia and Antonio Dell'Aquila, which lasted almost 50 years.

Compared to the 2020 edition, this new updated edition is characterized by the inclusion of an Appendix, with new in-depth texts, in particular on postcards erroneously attributed to Kirchner and his influence on the designers of his time.

Description

This volume, the result of the dedication and expertise of Pia and Antonio Dell’Aquila, offers a detailed biography of the artist and a complete chronology of his works. The book stands out for its meticulous cataloguing of Kirchner’s postcards, organized by series and divided into three distinct periods of his career.
Each series is accompanied by a rarity index that determines its value, providing valuable information on the presumed publication dates and specific characteristics of each series and the various known editions. The work also explores the use of postcard designs in other fields, such as book illustrations, menus, advertisements, and posters, and examines the events that inspired some of the most famous series.

The research work of the Dell’Aquila couple, which published the first edition of this catalogue in 1996, has become an essential reference for Kirchner postcard collectors worldwide. With the advent of the Internet, which has expanded the number of collectors and sellers of vintage postcards, this detailed and reasoned catalogue proves to be an indispensable tool for distinguishing the rarest and most valuable specimens from the more common ones.

Raphael Kirchner’s Postcards is a passionate and rigorous tribute to the work of a great artist and a fundamental guide for anyone who wants to explore and understand the value of his creations.