He left Vienna about 1836, and successively visited Zürich, Freiburg, Baden-Baden, and Paris.
In 1837 he came to London, and obtained employment in the establishment of Messrs Wesley & Co., Friar Street, Doctors' Commons, for whom he worked three years.
[1] Zaehnsdorf became a naturalised British subject in 1855, and died at 14 York Street, Covent Garden, on 7 December 1886.
Zaehnsdorf was acquainted with the German, French, and Italian languages, and also with several of the Slavonic tongues.
In July 1849 he married Ann, daughter of John Mahoney, by whom he had an only child, Joseph William Zaehnsdorf, his successor in business and author of The Art of Bookbinding: a practical treatise (2nd ed.