Heinrich Rockstroh: "Anweisung zum Modelliren aus Papier ..."

Author: Heinrich Rockstroh

Title: Anweisung zum Modelliren aus Papier oder aus demselben allerley Gegenstände im Kleinen nachzuahmen. Ein nützlicher Zeitvertreib für Kinder

Publisher: Verlag des Landes-Industrie-Comptoirs, Weimar

Year of publication: 1802

Size: 19 x 11 cm

Volume: X + 132 pages with 21 illustrations

Source of facsimile: Collection Kurt Schönhoff

Download: Introduction (PDF, 2 MB)

Download: Content (PDF, 50 MB)

Download: Illustrations (ZIP, 34 MB)

The book of Heinrich Rockstroh “Anweisung zum Modelliren aus Papier oder aus demselben allerley Gegenstände im Kleinen nachzuahmen. Ein nützlicher Zeitvertreib für Kinder” of 1802 is the first book we know of that deals explicitly with card modeling. In 1810 Rockstroh wrote an extensively edited new version of this book, titled “Die Kunst, mancherlei Gegenstände aus Papier zu formen“ (the AGK has published this version as a reprint).

The 132 pages of instructions come in 3 chapters: The first, “provisional requirements and rules” (p. 1-22) deals extensively (though in rather general form) with the technique and the required tools; the second (p. 22-50) presents exercises in geometry and drawing; the third and longest (p. 51-128) explains the actual modeling in detail, illustrated with 21 copper engravings showing the completed models and the development drawings (web) of each model.

Obviously Rockstroh had discovered a market niche – not only was his book plagiarized, this plagiarism was even re-published in a second print run. You can download this rip-off from the AGK web pages.