"Ver Sacrum Kalender 1903", 1903, 12 woodcuts printed from stereotype plates in colour on laid paper, with cover and title vignette, one of 500 examples, block size each c. 15 x 14.3 cm, the vignette 7 x 7 cm, size of the booklet 25.7 x 24.2 cm, published as a special issue of the VI volume of 'Mitteilungen der Vereinigung Bildender Künstler Österreichs Ver Sacrum', in original cover, (RAC)

A superb example, only the cover shows minor signs of age.

“As a result of a revival of the old calendar tradition, artist-designed calendars experienced a noticeable increase in importance around 1900 (...) The members of the Vienna Secession also devoted themselves to calendar design with the 1901-1903 volumes of their house magazine ‘Ver Sacrum’. (...) Whilst the calendars for the years 1901 and 1902 were designed in different techniques, the 1903 calendar booklet was entirely executed in coloured woodcut technique . Each month has a colour woodcut double-page spread, designed by a Secession member. In each case, a two-colour woodcut on the left-hand page is accompanied by the typographically extraordinarily original calendars designed by Alfred Roller on the right-hand page” (Saskia Wagner, Popularisierung der Kunst. In: "Kunst für alle" p. 270)
The woodcuts were printed from stereotype plates;
hand prints from the original block, sometimes in increased plate numbers, could be purchased from the artists.
Containing works by: Friedr¡ch König, vignette "Jupiter" - Ferdinand Andri, "Zeitenfolge" - Emil Orlik, "Mummenschanz" - Wilhelm List, "Strahlenküsse" - Kolomann Moser, "Wetterübermut" - Leopold Stolba, ""Frühlingsgeläute" - Elena Luksch, "Sonnenwende" - Karl Müller, "Die Erfüllung" - Leopold Stolba, "Die Sensen" -Max Kurzweil, "Heimwärts" - Karl Müller, "Die Frucht" - Alfred Rolle, "Letzte Blätter"- Rudolf Jettmar, "Die müde Sonne"

Literature:
Tobias G. Natter/ Max Hollein/ Klaus Albrecht Schröder (ed.) “Kunst für Alle. Der Farbholzschnitt in Wien um 1900”, exh. cat. Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt and Albertina Vienna, Cologne 2016, p. 276 – 285 with ill. (another example illustrated)