The fore-runner of all modern mail-order catalogues

BESTELMEIER, Georg Hieronimus.

Pädagogisches Magazin zur lehrreichen und angenehmen Unterhaltung für die Jugend es enthält solches eine Auswahl der schönsten Artikel, Städte, Dörfer, Palläste, Häußer, Gärten etc... zu finden in Nürnberg / Zweite Fortsetzung meines Magazins verschiedenen Sachen... / Drittes Stück meines Magazins von verschiedenen Kunst- und anderen nützlichen Sachen... / Viertes Stück meines Magazins von verschiedenen Kunst- und anderen nützlichen Sachen.

Nürnberg: Bestelmeier, 1793.

1st Edition. Hardcover. Very Good. Item #004085

Print date 1793-1796. Four parts in one volume. 8vo (175 x 100 mm, part III slightly smaller in size at foot). Collation: Part I (1793): 24 pp. and 7 plates (vignettes 1 to 97); part II (1794): 32 pp. and 11 plates (vignettes 98 to 301); part III (1795): 40pp. and 10 plates (vignettes 301 to 459); part IV (1796): 30, [2: blank] pp. and 7 plates (vignettes 460 to 554). In all 35 folding engraved plates with a total of 555 small vignettes of toys. Bound in late 19th century half cloth over marbled paper boards, gilt-lettered spine, signature paper label to front-board, lower edge uncut (minor rubbing to extremities). Internally with light age toning of paper and very minor spotting in places; several plate captions in parts I, II and IV cropped or partly shaved; one letter of title in part II painted over with blue ink; two tears in plate 10 of part III with old paper repairs. Provenance: Süddeutsche Lehrerbücherei München (ink stamps to front pastedown and first flyleaf). The library was closed, its books distributed among various institutions in 2023/24 and some of the items given away. Very good copy overall. ----

FIRST AND ONLY EDITION, AND OF UTMOST RARITY, of one of the fore-runners of all modern mail-order catalogues. Born into a family of brewers, Bestelmeier grew up in economically secure circumstances and completed a commercial education. As a young merchant, he established a business selling toys and fashionable accessories. In 1793 he bought a corner house at the Nuremberg fruit market, which he used as residential address and commercial operation. Here he set up his first shop, the much-known "Bestelmeierische Laden". In order to offer his products to a large group of buyers, he issued his first mail-order catalogue the same year under the title "Pädagogisches Magazin zur lehrreichen und angenehmen Unterhaltung für die Jugend" (Educational magazine for informative and enjoyable entertainment of the youth). It included 97 illustrated items and was so well received that he produced six further catalogues between 1794 and 1801, each with new items listed. In 1803 Bestelmeier merged all previous catalogs into a single, first general catalog in which he listed 1111 items. Business was so good that Bestelmeier expanded his operation. In 1803 he received permission from the city council of Nuremberg to establish a furniture store, which led to year-long dispute with the local carpenters, who fiercely opposed Bestelmeier selling furniture fabricated outside the city limit. Although Bestelmeier is considered one of the first wholesalers in Germany, he was not the first person to retail using the mail-order catalogue format - that honour belongs to the Berlin toy retailer Peter Friedrich Catel (1747-1791) who published an illustrated catalogue as early as 1790. However, by 1800, Bestelmeier was the only toy retailer in the world to operate its mail order business with illustrated catalogues (see Mondschein).
Bibliography: VD 18 90291581; Rammensee p. 155; Kirchner 732; Monschein, Aufklärung, 14. - Visit our website to see more images!

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