"Die Henne brütet hier ein Ey, worin dein Glück enthalten sey" (the hen breeding an egg, which may contain luck), after 1815, accordeon card, coloured etching, 9,5 x 7,5 cm, typographically inscribed Wien b. J. Bermann, (Hu)

Collection from the estate of the art and music publisher Joseph Eder / Jermias Bermann, Vienna
Lots 252 – 292

In 1789 the Viennese art and music publisher Joseph Jakob Martin Eder (1759–1835) founded the so-called “Edersche Kunsthandlung” (Eder’s Art Publishing House), located in a building called “Zum schwarzen Elephanten” (“The Black Elephant”) in Vienna’s Graben (conscription number 619). Eder was mainly occupied with marketing visiting cards, which in his shop were at first produced in a plain and ordinary style and later on were letter-pressed onto paper, silk, and sateen. The shop also manufactured banner cards. Employing a staff of several hundreds, it reached its economic climax between 1811 and 1816. From 1811 onwards, Joseph Eder’s son-in-law Jeremias Bermann became a co-partner and in 1815 the sole holder of the enterprise. The company published images of saints and historical events, maps, almanacs, cut-out sheets (so-called “Mandlbögen”) and so-called “Clark’s figures”. Joseph Eder was also one of Ludwig van Beethoven’s publishers in Vienna and for example edited his piano sonata op. 10.
Comprising family albums, small souvenirs and watercolours, love tokens, and decorative caskets, the extraordinary collection now in the possession of the heirs of the Josef Eder art publishing house documents the bourgeois lifestyle prevalent in Vienna in the early nineteenth century.

Biedermeier greeting cards
Greeting cards whose scenes could partly be transformed mechanically by pulling, turning, or folding. Friendship and greeting cards are amongst the cultural and historical testimonials from the Biedermeier era (circa 1815–1848). The attempt to withstand the omnipotent state authorities was not least reflected by a withdrawal to the private sphere, with people concentrating on and coveting the bliss of family life and a domestic world, where they experienced ultimate happiness and which allowed them to indulge in emotions, reveries, and sentiments. Friendship, love, and loyalty were among the preferred topics of greeting cards, which developed into a real fashion. Forty out of approximately one hundred publishing houses marketing greeting cards during the Biedermeier era were located in Vienna. The city was the cradle of the “mechanical” greeting card, which between 1810 and 1830 stood out for its virtually inexhaustible reservoir of witty ideas. The so-called “Streifenzugkarte” (pull-strip card), a popular variant of accordion cards, featured images and texts on inserted and extendable paper strips or silk ribbons. Once their ends, extending beyond the margins, were pulled, the contents of these cards were exposed. The so-called “Drehkarte” (pivoting card) was another popular type of greeting card. It functioned with a knotted thread that served as a pivot by which the scenes could be changed.
The so-called “Hebelzugkarte” (lever and pull-out card) was a combination of these two variants and allowed movement in all directions. The most refined arrangements and combinations resulted in countless variants, all of which sought to conceal and playfully reveal the private secrets and wishes.” (Peter Weibel, Die Sammlung Werner Nekes, exhibition catalogue, Landesmuseum Joanneum, Graz 2003)