Raschig, Marianne

1) hand-prints of around 360 actors, producers, screen-writers etc, including many stars of the silent screen: Louise Brooks (both hands signed, with a photographic negative), Marlene Dietrich (left hand signed, in 1930), Fritz Lang (both hands signed in 1925, with a photographic negative), Leni Riefensthal (left hand signed in 1929, with the photographic negative), René Clair (both hands signed), Josef von Sternberg, Douglas Fairbanks senior, Peter Lorre, Alfred Abel (Metropolis), Hans Albers, Gitta Alpár, Charlotte Ander, Albert Bassermann, Ernst Behmer, Hans Brausewetter, Erik Charelle, Mady Christians, Carl Clewing, Lil Dagover, Gustav Diessl, Wladimir Gaidarow, Lilian Harvey, Brigitte Helm, Trude Hesterberg, Hilde Hildebrand, Emil Jannings, Eugen Klöpfer, Leopoldine Konstantin, Werner Krauss, Franz Lederer, Theodor Loos, Alexander Moissi, Asta Nielsen, Max Pallenberg, Henny Porten, Fritz Rasp, Else Reval, Walter Slezak, Agnes Straus, Hermann Thimig, Paul Wegener, Ellen Widmann, Leopold Jessner, Seymour Nebezahl, Friedrich Zelnik and others

2) c.50 German politicians, feminists and activists: Gustav Stresemann, Theodor Heuss, Gertrud Bäumer, Ulrich von Brockdorff-Ranzau, Albert Grzesinski, Helene Lang, Paul Löbe, Marie-Elisabeth Lüders, Albert Südekum; together with forty dancers including Tamara Karsavina, Mary Wigman and The Tiller Girls (26), the boxers Max Schmeling and Hans Breitensträter, the chess-player Emanuel Lasker, the tennis-player Nelly Nappach, other sportsmen, entertainers, businessmen, and many others



3) c.300 mostly non-celebrities, including nurses, doctors, patients, children, and Titine, a chimpanzee at the Berlin Zoo (prints taken on 23 June 1928)



c.1500 sets of hand-prints in all, most including separate prints for each hand, and many also containing photographic negatives used by Raschig for her 1931 book, some finished in pencil by Raschig (e.g. Dietrich's), together with around 150 photographs, c.100 half-tone photographic prints and 16 reduced-size photographs signed by the subjects in white ink (including by Graf Hermann Keyserling, Erna Morena, Elisabeth Grube, Arnolt Bronnen, E.H. Stinnes), and an undated 1-page manuscript fragment in Raschig's hand, describing and analysing some features of the hand, the hand-prints mostly in ring-bound folders, others loose in envelopes, Monte Carlo, Berlin and elsewhere, c.1871-1935, a few somewhat browned or creased, some fraying to edges

Condition is described in the main body of the cataloguing, where appropriate
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Marianne Raschig was the leading (and most serious) palm-reader in Germany between the two World Wars.  She collected a substantial archive of hand-prints, invariably signed by the subjects themselves, offering a fine conspectus of famous men and women in Berlin, mainly in the years 1924-1926, but continuing into the early 1930s. Some very early examples here, however, date from the latter decades of the nineteenth century, and include members of the general population, for instance nurses, doctors and children. Raschig seems to have had no interest in eugenics; hers was a highly organized and concentrated study in personality as revealed by hand-lines.  Her classic book, Hand und Persönlichkeit. Einführung in das System der Handlehre, (1931), contains 158 plates of photograpic negatives, based on her hand-prints (all reduced), together with her analyses of the results.  It has become a source of information for psalmists ever since.  Marlene Dietrich's print is signed and dated "Marlene Dietrich 6.6.30"; 1930 was the year of her first great success, Der blaue Engel.  Printed lists of the contents are available for consultation on request.