Bełza Władysław (pseud.Piast)- Book of aphorisms, thoughts, sentences, remarks and sententia from one hundred Polish writers [one of the first Polish Art Nouveau covers].

Bełza Władysław (pseud.Piast)/ Book of aphorisms, thoughts, sentences, remarks and sentences from one hundred Polish writers/ Lviv 1888/ H.Altenberg's Bookstore/ linen binding/ p.VIII,135/ foreign dedication from the epoch on the blank page preceding the title page/ good+ condition,slight rubbing of the surface and corners of the binding, slight yellowing in the text in places

One of the first Polish covers in the Art Nouveau style.

Quoting Jan Strauss, "Although the new style appeared in our bookstores for good only at the beginning of the new century, books with Art Nouveau motifs on their covers began to appear in Poland a few years earlier. Among the first heralds of Young Poland was the cover of the "Book of Aphorisms " - a work published in 1888 in Lviv, by [...] the publishing house of H. Altenberg. The book, clad in smooth pink linen (here a variant with gray cloth), was decorated with a bunch of fancifully curved yellow tulips. Their clear, contoured drawing and flatly laid color leave no doubt: we are dealing with a composition made in the new art nouveau style. It is unsigned, and the very loose connection with domestic production raises the suspicion that we are dealing with an import, with a foreign cover, ad hoc adapted by the publisher for the use of the anthology by Wladyslaw Belza, for this was the real name of Wladyslaw Piast.Who was the author and executor of this binding - we do not know. However, it was most likely merged with the book block in Poland.'' [Now cover! vol.I,p.205].