Description
Various Authors. Davorin VOLAVŠEK, Author of the Binding.
[Ljubljana:] Slovensko planinarsko društvo [Slovenian Mountaineering Association] 1935.
Davorin Volavšek, who authored several articles on traditional arts, was a professor of national (local) art and history of art at the first Slovenian art school Probuda (Initiative). The institution, approximately equivalent to the School for Applied Arts, was located at the Technical High School of Ljubljana and was active between 1921 until the beginning of World War II.
This art school was a part of the movement promoting national arts and crafts, after Slovenia separated from Austro-Hungary and in 1918 joined the new alliance of South Slavic countries, known as the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.
Volavšek was is also known as a map-maker. His map Ročni zemljevid kraljevine S.H.S. (A Hand Map of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenians), was published in 1919.
The Binding in Focus
The binding, made for a book with paintings and photographs of the Slovenian Alps, is composed of national images with a woman and a child in traditional clothing in the front and a view of the Lake Bled with the island and the castle in the back.
The dates 23. 3. 1886 – 1936 in the upper part and the number 50, written on the wreath, held by the girl, suggests, that this is a presentation binding for one 50th anniversary, probably of the Health-resort Commission of Bled (Zdraviliška komisija), founded in 1886, which set the basis for tourism on Bled, which is today one of the most visited places in Slovenia. The Commission was reorganized in 1936.
References: Cf.: France Golob, Franjo Sterle, ustanovitelj umetniške šole »Probuda« in vloga šole v tedanjem likovnem življenju, Kronika, Časopis za slovensko krajevno zgodovino, 34, 1986, pp. 160.170; Božo Benedik, Zdraviliška komisija na Bledu, Kronika, Časopis za slovensko krajevno zgodovino 35, 1987, pp. 199-204.
