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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Gavin Smith, post: 263933, member: 5300&quot;]Noticed your question on this site which I have only now signed up to. I think I can answer your question.</p><p><br /></p><p>Both etchings are signed by Hertha Czoernig and almost certainly will be of the Austrian Tyrol. Not particularly valuable. I have an etching by her currently for sale on eBay. </p><p><br /></p><p>There is some other seller that insists the works are by H Goering. They are not. In fairness it is a difficult signature to decipher but once you have got it in your brain actually instantly recognisable. </p><p><br /></p><p>Helga Czoernig was born in Klagenfurt Austria in 1886 and studied at the Art School for Women and latterly in Weimar Germany. Herta (or Hertha) was the grand-daughter of a gentleman with Bohemian roots, named &quot;Czörnig&quot;. He held high office in the Habsburg administration.&nbsp; In 1852 he was awarded the noble title of &quot;Freiherr&quot; which is in the UK is the equivalent to the title of &quot;Baron&quot; and so he was named from that day onward: Carl - Freiherr Czoernig von Czernhausen. He was relatively famous because of his &#039;invention&#039; of statistical theories.</p><p><br /></p><p>A son of a &quot;Freiherr&quot; has the same title, and a daughter was called &quot;Freiin&quot;. One of his sons married a girl with Jewish origin/roots named &quot;Gobanz&quot;.&nbsp; As you might know - the Jewish roots (or genetics of names) are given to the next generations only by the daughter’s line.</p><p><br /></p><p>So: the first born was a boy and had all his life, the name:&nbsp; Walter Czoernig von Czernhausen [born 1883] like his grandfather (with that name) and was famous as a &#039;cave-explorer&#039;.</p><p><br /></p><p>The second born was a girl, our artist, &#039;started&#039; her life with the name: Hertha Czoernig - Gobanz [born 1886] So with that Jewish name (Gobanz) she studied art in Vienna and Weimar in the beginning of the 20th century. In Vienna she was taught the art of etching by Professor Ludwig Michalek.</p><p><br /></p><p>Early etchings by her are signed H. Gobanz Czoernig. Unusual as you would expect the surnames to be the other way round.</p><p><br /></p><p>We know she toured all the streets and squares and sites of Vienna, plus the countryside,&nbsp; etching and drawing. Of course in the 1930’s after the Anschluss and the rise of Nazi power in Vienna, life for Jews in the city changed dramatically.</p><p><br /></p><p>It appears at this time, she omits the Gobanz constituent of her signature and switches to signing her “German” name H. Czoernig, as in these etchings,&nbsp; for obvious reasons. </p><p><br /></p><p>So perhaps not large monetary value but a remarkable testament so somebody with high skill and more amazingly survived the holocaust, albeit with second generation Jewish antecedents. </p><p><br /></p><p>I have several others in my collection including one showing her earlier signature pre 1930&#039;s. </p><p><br /></p><p>Kind regards</p><p>Gavin Smith[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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