HEGEL, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich (1770-1831). Grundlinien der Philosophie des Rechts. Berlin: Nicolaischen Buchhandlung, 1821.

8vo (197 x 120mm). With the additional title (minor tear in gutter of a single leaf). Contemporary German half mor gilt (minor wear to spine head, extremities rubbed). Provenance: Dr. Paul Singer, Wien (bookplate).

FIRST EDITION of Hegel’s seminal work on “the sociology of the perfectly organized state… It turns away from the apparent chaos of the democratic advocates of individual right in favour of an overwhelming sense that liberty cannot exist apart from order, and that the vital connexion of all parts of the body politic is the source of all good” (PMM 283).

Paul Singer (1904-1997) was born in Pressburg, Hungary and grew up in Vienna, where he began his studies in 1921 at the Realgymnasium, becoming a neuropsychiatrist in 1929 at the University of Vienna. While in Vienna he developed a lifelong interest in Chinese art. He and his wife, actress Eva Geyer, fled the country in 1938 and, after a brief stay in London, came to the United States. Singer became quite active in collecting Chinese art with support from Arthur M. Sackler, and in exchange they agreed his collection would go to Sackler upon his death. Borst 1361; PMM 283. A FINE CRISP COPY.

HEGEL, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich (1770-1831). Grundlinien der Philosophie des Rechts. Berlin: Nicolaischen Buchhandlung, 1821.