Letterology

Stephen Colbert Collaborates With Maurice Sendak Part One

2012-01-26T17:28:00.001-08:00

Stephen Colbert Collaborates With Maurice Sendak Part Two

2012-01-26T17:19:00.001-08:00

The Poetical Works & Letters of Robert Burns

2012-01-25T13:39:00.000-08:00

In honor of Robert Burns birthday today (1759-1796), I have one of my own favorite title pages to share from a 1787 edition of The Poetical Works and Letters of Robert Burns. I recently found this book on a flea market table for $10. It has a very nice stamped leather binding with some wear, gilded edges and it is all in tact. Evidently, this is the "family edition" of this book. Just beyond the title page it has the comment "(In this Edition the more Objectionable Passages and Pieces are excluded)". The decorative title with beautiful line art and blackletter text is an inspired work of lettering and illustration. I have seen other titles of this very same nature, but so it goes...I can't seem to put my fingers upon them now. (I have digital copies of them floating around here somewhere, so will revisit their comparisons again later once I find them). This title page and other illustrated pages throughout the book are steel engravings. Below is the same edition of this book I found on The Philadelphia Rare Books & Manuscripts Company site recently. It has a plaid front cover and a nice fore-edge painting of Ripley Castle.

This beautiful edition of the same Burns book is currently on display through February 5th for a Robert Burns exhibit at the Morgan Library in New York City. It was lavishly rebound for Charles J. Sawyer (1876?-1931), in the 20th century, probably by Sangorski & Sutcliffe, in London. The binder even included a miniature portrait of the author on the back cover. Visit the Morgan Library's online exhibit and you can listen to some audio versions of Burns works over a hearty meal of haggis tonight—or not.

This is how the poet's birthday was celebrated in Glasgow a few years back.

Birds and Words

2012-01-25T02:59:00.000-08:00

In my mind, this set of 1959 Czechoslovakian postage stamps designed by painter, illustrator, lettering artist, teacher and stage designer Karel Svolinsky (1896-1986) and engraved by Jirka Ladislav, are some of the most beautiful I've seen. The illustrations of the birds with the lovely script lettering, and the high quality multi-color engravings, set these Czech stamps apart as works of art. More of Svolinsky's postage stamp artwork can be seen in two of my earlier posts here and here, and in this set of lovely postcards in a recent post. Look for many more of his stamp designs to come in the future.

Sweet Packaging

2012-01-24T02:15:00.000-08:00

Swiss Chocolat Suchard ad from pages of the Allgemeine Illustrirte Zeitung, 1886. Via the Flickrstream of Mosh Garumpelaxias.

Tiny French Chocolate paper sleeve wrapper for a bite-size vanilla chocolate from Chocolat Menier, 1878. From the Letterology Archives.

Tiny caramel candy paper box from the Gum & Sweetmeat Co. of New York, undated. Folded size is 1.5 inches long. From the Letterology Archives.

Treasures of the 19th Century Dutch Book Trade

2012-01-23T01:37:00.000-08:00

Catalog cover for an association to promote the interests of booksellers in Amsterdam in the 19th century. Below is an 1876 advertisement for a bookstore.

1883 menu for the Book Society dinner.

Lithographed bookstore poster, 1903. Designed by William Bernard. Below is a promotion for the International Exhibition of Books and other related subjects.

Drawing of an exhibit for the Netherlands Booksellers Association. Below is a chromolithographed poster from 1875 for a children's bookstore.

The book trade in Europe during the early part of the 19th century was a prospering and flourishing industry, despite few major advancements since Gutenberg's era. Earlier this month I reported on a Dutch book about The Making of Books in 1850. This happens to be sort of a companion post to it, and just like the earlier post, these images of the 19th century book trade in the Netherlands also belong to the University of Amsterdam's Bibliotheek van het Boekanvak, or the library of the Book Trade. Their rich archive contains booksellers' catalogs, type specimens, posters, source material about the production and design of books, and ephemera from the printing industry. This library contains one of the largest and most comprehensive historical collections in the world documenting printing and book design.
This just in: For those of you lucky enough to be in Amsterdam between February 8th and May 13th 2012, you might enjoy visiting the University of Amsterdam's exhibition, The Printed Book, A Visual History. The exhibit and companion book by the same name which is compiled by Mathieu Lommen, curator of graphic design, covers 500 years of Western book design. According to the press release, "It showcases book design in all its forms: reference works, and works of art, 'for reading machines' and picture books, prestigious collector's items and throw away paperbacks. It includes work by famous printers of the hand-press period—Nicolas Jenson, Aldus Manutius, Christophe Plantin, the Elzeviers, John Baskerville, Giambattista Bodoni—and trendsetting designers of the modern era—William Morris, El Lissitzky, Jan Tschichold, Paul Rand, Massin, Irma Boom. It also includes remarkable illustrated works by architects and artists such as Giovanni Battista Piranesi and Maria Sibylla Merian. Special attention is devoted to printers' manuals, illuminating the printing process, and also to type specimens and writing masters' copybooks, placing letterforms in a broader context."
Below is a glimpse of the exhibition design by Experimental Jetset. I am so ready to pack my bags!

Check Out This Library Material

2012-01-19T11:59:00.000-08:00

Leave it to librarians to uncover some great film and TV clips about libraries and setting it to a dance beat. This is over 5 minutes of solid gold material and long past due. Excellent editing of 31 different Hollywood clips by Ryan Ireland and the staff at the Greene County Public Library in Ohio. Parker Posey has to be the best librarian! Thanks to Booktryst for the tip on this one. Made my day!

Glacial Graffiti

2012-01-18T10:26:00.000-08:00

Loving the snow today! The graphical interface outside today is amazing! ;)
::from aesthetic sensibility

Illuminating Characters

2012-01-18T00:17:00.000-08:00

These hand-illuminated letters are no wallflowers. They are spirited characters of nobility and deserve to be illuminated once again. Their geometric and botanical designs are not refined, yet quite beautiful none-the-less. They can be found in an early printed Italian book on the history of Rome, titled Scriptores Historiae Augustae, from the Special Collections of the University of Glasgow and published by Philippus de Lavagnia in 1475. The letters are thought to have been added to the text in the 15th or 16th century, though their style appears as if they could have been illustrated just yesterday. Many have exaggerated serifs, some are sans serifs and a few have more literal interpretations such as the "I" above which vaguely resembles a chalice. All of the illuminated letters are on view at the University of Glasgow's flickr set.

Ephemeral Books

2012-01-17T00:28:00.000-08:00

I'm rather intrigued by the ice book projects of Basia Irland who is an environmental artist concerned with river and watershed restoration. She works with research biologists, botanists, stream ecologists and community groups on various conservation projects to promote healthy watersheds. As part of her river restoration projects, she works with participants to hand carve ice books of frozen river water and embeds each with local native seeds which become sort of an "ecological language or riparian text" as she calls it. As the frozen books are launched downstream, the ice melts in the river's current and the seeds are released. Theoretically the seeds will grow into plants and trees which help to stabilize the river banks and provide shelter for fish and wildlife. I imagine this could happen, but it seems rather overly simplistic to me. I do appreciate the concept however and think her ephemeral books are beautiful. They promote an awareness of watershed preservation and restoration, and oh yeah, it must be really fun to watch ice books float downstream. You can watch a video of Irland's ice book project Receding/Reseeding here.

This ice book weighed 200 pounds and included seeds of the mountain maple, columbine, and spruce. It was released in Boulder Creek, Colorado in 2007.

A young ice book reader wonders why there are no pictures.

Irland makes other materials in the construction of her environmental books. The one above is Barnacle Book II on the shores of Puget Sound in Washington state. Below is a text of sand dollars in what else, but sand.

The Book of Drought is made from parched field notes and dehydrated paragraphs. The pages are dry from being sun-baked.

Faux Snow Job

2012-01-15T23:26:00.000-08:00

It snowed outside today and blanketed the city in white for the first time this Winter. Just in time to share some very recent snowflake work from a few of my Experimental Typography students. I know it may seem contrary, but I had them each design snowflakes as a warm-up exercise on the first day of class two weeks ago. Actually, I call them "word crystals". I assign students to design three snowflake-like crystals from a list of words about winter, snow and ice. They must use just one word and one font per flake, and are asked to work quickly and be playful with each. Just as the single word requires the students to look closely at the shape and the structure of it very carefully, the word alone is also responsible for creating the structure of the snowflake once a repeat pattern is defined. Most were symmetrical, but not all, and I continue to be pleasantly surprised by their varied outcomes.
The three snowflakes in the top row are designed by Sarah Ervine. Words used in each (from left to right) are Glacier; Avalanche; and Blizzard. Second row from left is Marisa Tanji: Chilling; Sarah Rudback: Silence; Jeremy Grant: Glacier. Third row is Jeremy Grant: Winter; Sarah Rudback: Exquisite; Marisa Tanji: Sledding.

The three feather-like dendrites above are designed by Susan Schumacher. Each were created in Photoshop using the three words, Silence, Snowangel, and Snowbird. Reversed out of black, they would more closely resemble a starburst of fireworks because of the beautiful contrail of letters she created. Such fine flakes have greater detail to reveal, so please click away on all.
Although Brendan Lattin's work below is more like a snowstorm than a snowflake, it is a beautiful texture none-the-less. We will soon be doing more experiments with lettering, texture and typographical patterns so I hope to be sharing more of my student's work here in the near future.

Drawing on Local Talent

2012-01-13T01:38:00.000-08:00

Some Crazy Magic: Meeting Harry Smith from Drew Christie on Vimeo.

Local Seattle artist Drew Christie continues to surprise me. From his shiny new website comes another one of his endearing animations, fully illustrated in loving detail. This is a strange little story about a strange little man, Harry Everett Smith (1923-1991) who was an American archivist, ethnomusicologist, student of anthropology, record collector, experimental filmmaker, artist, bohemian and mystic. Even more strange, he was also a gifted magician. In one of the many bios about him, it states: Smith's broad range of interests resulted in a number of collections. He donated the largest known paper airplane collection in the world to the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum. He was a collector of Seminole textiles and Ukrainian Easter Eggs. He also considered himself the world's leading authority on string figures, having mastered hundreds of forms around the world.
Drew enjoys stories and music and this one is like a 3 minute novel told to him by noted musician and filmmaker John Cohen. Not only that, but Drew can seriously draw and hand letter. He also performed the music soundtrack to this short. Check out his blog and store featuring posters, books, original prints and DVDs of his animations. (I featured his lovely animated music video for a Moondoggies song >here< in October 2010). You can also place a custom order or subscribe to the Drew Quarterly and receive a surprise package 4x a year!

Serious sidenote: Drew's crazy nice website was designed by my 2 former students Andrew Nedimyer and Barry Sevig of Camp Doug. I cannot claim any credit for their fine digital doings sadly, but they are also a digital design duo to put on the To Watch List! I'm quite proud of them both!

BiblioLegos

2012-01-12T00:46:00.000-08:00

Who said "there is no such thing as fun for the whole family"? Dave and Johnny Xandegar are a father and son team of Lego artists from Illinois who have quite a portfolio of amusing work at BrixWerx. Their charming blue bookmobile and the library stacks caught my eye here, and they are now busy building a Lego model of a library near their home in Illinois. You can see a BrixWerx beta pix of their library work-in-progress here.
The first two Lego books below are designed by Guy Himber at V&A Steamworks. It is the first Lego Steampunk book with a fully functional spine and pages (printed in vinyl) which turn. Himber has also designed a much larger Blurb book about his Lego creations called Lego Steampunk.

Another view of one of Himber's book structure here.

Sweet. A Moleskin blank journal perhaps, with a No.2 pencil? This one is from Starstreak007.

ReCycled Printing Ideas

2012-01-10T14:41:00.000-08:00

This is an idea whose time has come again. Recycle this cycle printing idea from the streets of 19th century Paris by strapping a container of some water-based ink to the back of your bike, fitted with a self-inking device, and the streets could be your canvas. I love this idea. It is the latest fashion in moveable type.
This tricycle printing sort of reminds me of Jonah Kessel's brilliant invention of his tricycle calligraphy. On the streets of Beijing, Kessel wrote such Chinese proverbs as: Create a good environment for minors to grow up healthy; Virtue shows through long term persistence, civilization reflects by actions; Civilization comes from every individual, to contribute from every little thing. I still marvel at his invention.
::As seen at Ptak Science Books.

A bicycle-driven "resistance press" from WWII. I believe this press is from the Netherlands where many underground presses flourished during the later stages of the war. It is difficult to see from this lone photo just how this press was operated by the bicycle, but I presume there was a strap-pulley system somehow connected to the flywheel of the press and the press operator fed the paper in the front seen on the left side of image.
I read somewhere that Orville and Wilbur Wright once designed and built a printing press and the two brothers ran their own job printing shop for a short while. Eventually they settled on managing a bicycle repair shop and building their own bicycles. Always the inventors, I have to wonder if they ever strapped a bicycle to one of their presses. If anyone knows more about this and bicycle-powered presses, please let me know.
::Photo by Krista van den Bos via Bibliopolis.

What Books Do While We Sleep

2012-01-09T16:23:00.000-08:00

No wonder I have so much trouble locating a specific book when I need it. From the folks at the Type bookstore in Toronto who seem to have an abundance of recreational reading books and a prolonged history of capturing them at play.
::From Quill & Quire via peacay at BibliOddysey.

The Making of Books in 1850

2012-01-09T02:13:00.000-08:00

The title page of this 1850 Dutch book, Bevallig en Nuttig, translates literally to Graceful and Useful. It's a nicely illustrated title page, and I presume the publisher is referring to the process of making useful books with grace, but I have to trust in the Google for my iTranslation. This endearing book is part of the "Tetterode Collection" included in the Special Collections at the University of Amsterdam. The beautiful chromolithograph prints nicely illustrate the entire bookmaking process. The 3 spreads below are the only available online, but they leave me hungry to see more. Do click on each for enlargements.

On left is The Typesetter. The caption suggests Laurens Koster of Haarlem invented the printing press in 1423 and later perfected it. The typesetter deals with assembling the words from lead type.
Sidenote: Legend actually has it that Laurens Koster of Haarlem first invented moveable type in 1423 after a walk in the woods with his grandchildren. He cut a letter from some bark of a tree and dropped it in the sand and noticed the impression it made there. He went on to experiment with block printing, inks and printing books, and received much fame for his work. Koster employed the lettercutter Johann Faust (sometimes spelled Fust) to assist him, and who later made off with all of his equipment when he was near death. This is the same Faust who eventually resurfaced in Mainz, where he began his own printing venture and later formed a contemptible partnership with Mr. Gutenberg. Today, there are no books in existence which carry Koster's name as printer, however the city of Haarlem has celebrated his achievements for hundreds of years. At the bottom of this entire post, you can see two photos I took a few years ago of an enormous bronze statue of Koster which sits in the big market square in Haarlem. He's holding a large book and say, a 300 point piece of (bronze) metal type.
The page on right illustrates the Essentials of Printing. In order to print books, you need these items: No.1, a barrel (!) of printing ink; No.2, lead type; No.3, an ink table; No.4, a pressure roller; No.5, a composing stick.
Oddly enough, no typesetters were employed in setting any text in this book, as it appears to be all hand-lettered.

The Steam-printing Press on left. Besides the regular (iron) press, the printer also uses the steam press. This works much faster, as it can print 12,000 sheets an hour.
The right page (above) has something to do with imposition. Composers make certain all of the leaves, or pages of the book will be folded and paginated in correct order when fitting the lead type in the imposition frames.

The Proofer on left. Before any printing takes place, there are 2 or 3 samples printed to check and improve it. It is necessary as words can be misspelled.
On right is The Printer. It is essential all the errors are now corrected. After the type has been inked, it is placed with the paper under the platen and the sheet is printed with one pull.
The "Tetterode Collection" is the official Typographical Library at the University of Amsterdam which they acquired from the Dutch type foundry, "N. Tetterode NV" in 1971. Today the library contains one of the largest typographic collections in Europe, covering all aspects of the book, paper, type and illustration from design, production and distribution of the book. The collection includes some 70,000 books, 12,000 documentation files on printers, publishers and booksellers, 13,000 type specimens, 10,000 book covers and thousands of examples of special graphics technology and design.

The Silkscreen Editions of Icinori

2012-01-05T00:55:00.000-08:00

Icinori is a small DIY silkscreen publisher based in France, featuring the work of Raphael Urwiller and Mayumi Otero, and friends. Urwiller and Otero produce all of the books and posters which are for sale in small editions and sell out quickly. The pop-up above appears to be their newest wordless book which is quite grand. More of their brightly-colored work can be seen below, and on their blog and flickr site. I cannot wait to see more work from them.

Animals, Urwiller, 2010. Wordless accordion book, printed in an edition of 25.

Residues of Sirens, by Clemence Pollet, 2009. 70 copies, sold out.

Weeders, 2009 by Raphael Urwiller. 70 copies, sold out.

No Man's Land, 2009. 35 copies with 20 different colors on the inside alone. Sold out.

Gourdin, 2009, 25 copies, sold out.

Retarded, by Brecht Vandenbroucke, 2009, 40 copies, sold out.

Where Ideas Come From

2012-01-03T18:01:00.000-08:00

Frank Chimero's The Being There Diary, asks the question: "What was the very best moment of your day?"

When asked where he gets his ideas, writer Nicholson Baker comments:
If you ask yourself, 'What's the best thing that happened today?' it actually forces a certain kind of cheerful retrospection that pulls up from the recent past things to write about that you wouldn't otherwise think about. If you ask yourself 'What happened today?' it's very likely that you're going to remember the worst thing, because you've had to deal with it—you've had to rush somewhere or somebody said something mean to you—that's what you're going to remember. But if you ask what the best thing is, it's going to be some particular slant of light, or some wonderful expression somebody had, or some particularly delicious salad. I mean, you never know...
::Via Austin Kleon's Tumblr, Lustik

A New Year's Toast

2012-01-02T12:52:00.000-08:00

Toast in the New Year with some text on toast. You could write yourself a to-do list for the day in jam or prepare a toasted love note for someone sitting next to you at the breakfast table. Or write a toast novel? This is such a great idea from Niimi, a Japanese design office specializing in product design, however it appears the letter may only be a prototype. With the envelope exterior and the grill mark lines, I am certain the toasted letter would be very well-received if it were for real. In 2007, the letter received the Gold Prize for New Product Design at the Toyama Product Design Competition.
::Found on Present & Correct via Good Mail.

Have a Great Calendar Year

2012-01-02T00:49:00.000-08:00

If only there was an app for a calendar as nice as this. It was designed by British artist Edward Bawden (1903-1989), one of the great painters, illustrators and lettering artists of the 20th century. He originally designed the 12 month calendar for the book, The Review of Revues, by C.B. Cochran in 1930, with each month featuring a hand-lettered masthead and a beautiful 3-color illustration. Suitable for printing (control + click on mac). Tip-o'-the-hat to Dr. Chris Mullen over at The Visual Telling of Stories for kindly providing these images. Please note: Calendar dates do not reflect 2012.

How to Design Rustic Type

2012-01-01T02:30:00.000-08:00

1. Photograph a log.
2. Convert it to grayscale.
3. Increase contrast.
4. Posterize image and create a black and white TIFF file.
5. Send file to Vector Magic.
6. Send vectorized image as PDF to engraver.
7. Hand-color print with granulated watercolors and salt.
8. Repeat for each letter below.

TIP: For snow-capped and icicle letters, spray with water and freeze quickly.

Wishing all of you good cheer

in my very first log of the New Year!

*<|;-)

::With apologies to Lunada Bay Letterpress, for my log adaptation.

A Stitch in Time

2011-12-30T00:20:00.000-08:00

Gregor, the calendar scarf for the wall, from German designer Patrick Frey. I suppose you could wear it until your year totally unravels.

The 3D CMYK Print

2011-12-29T02:46:00.000-08:00

It was quite by accident that I stumbled into the cross-stitch design work of Evelin Kasikov after yesterday's post on the Manolo sisters and their embroidered type. All of these artists are based in London, but the only common thread between their work is embroidery.
Evelin Kasikov has long had a fascination with typography and printed matter along with a love of craft, and decided to combine her interests by exploring cross-stitch as part of her academic studies at Central St. Martin's in 2008. She began by deconstructing the 4-color CMYK print composed of various sized dots and replaced each dot with hand embroidered cross-stitches. Where many CMYK prints might be made with a screen of 150 dots-per-inch, Kasikov can reduce her cross-stitched resolution to as little as 2 or 3 dots-per-inch. Just as the dot size in a print can effect tone and saturation, she varies the thickness of the thread in order to create subtleties of tone. To further imitate a 4-color print, she also adjusts the angle of each cross-stitched color. This is what I find so engaging about Kasikov's work—beauty of craft meets the science of color reproduction. She can methodically mirror a 4-color print with the precision of a pressman—but does so with the trained eye of a designer. A nice reminder that craft and design are not inseparable.
Below is Kasikov's first fully handprinted alphabet of 26 lowercase san serif letterforms. They are 4-color CMYK made with 26,773 stitches. The challenge, Kasikov claims, was to construct a coherent character set with 10 cross-stitches per x-height. The screens for each color were set to a different angle and the combined blend of the stitched CMYK colors effectively result in a handmade Registration Black when viewed at a distance.

Below are images from Kasikov's Printed Matter project, created for her final MA project and based upon her cross-stitch technique. In the four different books, she explored craft and color in three-dimensional form within the context of graphic design.

The images below are hand embroidered posters based on Gill Sans Light. They are examples of the blend of CMYK colors stitched in four different thread thicknesses. In addition to her website, you can find much more of her colorful work on Flickr and her blog Craft meets Graphic Design. Editioned prints and stitched originals are for sale here.

Sweater Letters

2011-12-27T23:25:00.001-08:00

No need to work with cold type in the wintertime, when you can dress your letters in warm double-knit sweaters. This Sweater Letter set is designed by twin sisters, Maricor and Maricar Manolo of the small design studio Maricor/Maricar based in London. The sweater set was privately commissioned and hand embroidered with cotton floss thread on cotton fabric. Not recommended for warmer climates. In addition to their embroidery letters, the 2 sisters also mix it up with other print and web media, set design, album artwork and animation.

Embroidered illustration for ESPN magazine for their regular Go Play section. Below are more fine examples of their embroidered lettering work.

Season's Readings

2011-12-25T01:11:00.000-08:00

This set of bogus books from the stacks at Letterology Library (with exception to this last gem from the NYPL Digital Gallery), are; spoiler alert; greeting cards posing as books. My most favorite is the one at top which is the first faux book-card I discovered years ago. After finding the next book-card at some forgotten post Christmas sale, this theme soon became a collection. The oldest in this series is the postcard shown directly above, and it is postmarked 1909. I find it rather odd that 3 out of 7 of the cards each have burning candles on their covers—a practice I would not recommend for books or cards.
No matter the holiday celebration, sending greetings of joy is universal. I wish all of you a great Season's Readings and Joy, and I thank you for your continued support of Letterology; particularly over this past year. May you continue to stay inspired in whatever it is you do!

Winter Scenes of old Czechoslovakia

2011-12-23T23:15:00.000-08:00

A set of 10 lithographed postcards from 1948 illustrated by Czech artist Karel Svolinský (1896-1986). I recently was doing a little online "me-commerce" when I discovered this set of postals at Antik Buddha's online site. Svolinský's work charmed me immediately just as his stamp designs have done so in the past. Anyone familiar with Czech postage stamps, banknotes or Czech art and painting after WWII, would at some time encounter Mr. Svolinský and his work. He was one of the most influential Czech artists of the last century. In the course of 40 years, he designed 210 stamp designs for the post of Czechoslovakia. He was also a teacher, a painter, a theater designer, an illustrator and a great designer of posters, ex libris and books.
This set of folk art postals came packaged in a paper wrapper with an adorable snowman on the front (seen below). The 4-color original lithographed prints are titled Zima, or Winter in english, and illustrate some of the Czech folk art traditions of the Winter solstice holidays.

Santa Brand Chocolate

2011-12-23T01:58:00.000-08:00

The marketing of Christmas never seems to end. Some of it is good, but so much of it is useless crap. This one is in a class all by itself. It is an outer wrapper from Rowntree chocolate candy bar packaging from the 1950s. Simple and playful, this sweet chocolate packaging is truly a gem.
::From Jason Liebig's flickrstream.

Holiday Ties

2011-12-22T23:15:00.000-08:00

1960 British magazine advertisement for Tootal socks and ties designed by Tom Eckersley.

1942 and 1943 half-page advertisements with Christmas tiepography from
Botany Ties and paul malon's flickrstream.

Christmas wrap for that special Him, with belt and tiepography. From Roadsidepictures flickrstream.

Le Christmas Catalog

2011-12-22T02:46:00.000-08:00

The beaucoup toys and trinkets here are wonderful, but I would be delighted to wake up to this beautiful 1952 Christmas catalog beneath my tree. These pages are just a glimpse of over 30 colorful toy-filled pages from the French catalog Comptoir Général de la Bimbeloterie at the fabulous Flickrstream of Rebecca's Collection. The e-commerce user experience can never compare to this!

Space Age Santa

2011-12-22T01:04:00.000-08:00

Forget the reindeer. Santa's downsized and he's finally got a brand new sleigh! You can send Santa's space sled into orbit by following the DIY easy assembly instructions after downloading and printing. Santa's space ship is kindly provided on the Flickrstream of Calsidyrose where you can also find the download.

First Day Christmas Covers

2011-12-21T02:03:00.000-08:00

This first day of stamp issue with a very elegant typographical ski pole and snowflake ornaments, commemorates the 1962 World Ski Championships in Poland. This just has to be their clever idea of a Polish joke... a ski pole for a skiing Pole? It just has to be ;)

1968 British first day cover commemorating toys and games. No design credit given here, but the cover illustration certainly looks like the brilliant work of British designer Tom Eckersley (1914-1997).

Another 1968 British first day cover of the same commemorative toy stamps. This time illustrated with someone in her red pajamas standing barefoot on a block of ice. I somehow missed that holiday tradition.

Christmas Tales

2011-12-20T02:30:00.000-08:00

The 2 illustrations seen above are wood engravings by the very accomplished artist Alexander Anderson (1775-1870), considered to be America's first "commercial artist". I have posted previously on Anderson's prolific work, and will likely do so again, as he had a very distinguished career. These 2 wood engravings were used for the very popular childrens' book series, Parley's Christmas Tales. The first illustration was likely used as a title page while the second was used as the cover design seen below.
First published in Boston in 1827, the Parley's series were one of the first childrens' books to be based upon true stories rather than fairies, giants or monsters. Because of their popularity, they soon became a victim of plagiarism and eventually folded. Below is a well-loved Peter Parley's book published in 1838 with the same Anderson wood engraving as seen above.

:: The 2 illustrations above are from the NYPL Digital Gallery. The image of book above is from the University of Washington's Special Collections.

Snow Books

2011-12-19T02:44:00.000-08:00

A Patch of Old Snow by Robert Frost is a miniature book designed by my friend Margery Hellman of The Holburne Press in 2002. It was printed in an edition of 50 at Bonnie Thompson Norman's The Windowpane Press. Knowing of my personal penchant for the snowflake, my good friend Bonnie presented this to me as a gift several years ago, and I have always treasured it greatly. As all of Margery's books, they are a recipe of thoughtfulness and craftsmanship, with a good measure of character. Her books are as much poetry in motion as the poet's words which she handsets in type (with her strained vision). This particular little book of hers is a beautiful interpretation of Frost's lovely poem. The book opens like a snowflake fractal, and letters and ornaments fall on the page like a dusting of light snow. After reading the short verse twice—you soon discover Margery's note near the end—When reciting his short poems, Frost frequently would repeat them. Now this gives me the happy feeling of snowfall accumulation * . * . * !

This spread reveals a pop-up sheet of vellum with text lightly printed in what appears to be a snow forecast from a newspaper, which nicely resonates with Frost's poem.

The repeated verse on the clear vellum.

The single spreads of this book are backed with vellum papers which are structural, and the boards are attached separately. The attached "dust" cover is a clear vellum which reveals the title and gives it a nice frosty feel. The book is only 3" in height with 5 full spreads. There are a few more copies still available from Vamp & Tramp Booksellers as well as more of her books listed here.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Below is another small book of meditations which has nothing to do with snow other than conveying purity I presume. The cover design knocked me out when I saw it. The title page is pretty elaborate typography too. No publisher's date on it, but the inscription on the endsheet is dated 1887. The 4" tall book is printed in London by The Religious Tract Society.
* * * Let it snow * * * * * * Let it snow * * * * * * Let it snow * * *

Swedish Holiday Delights

2011-12-15T23:20:00.000-08:00

This nice collection of holiday covers from the Swedish printer's journal Grafiskt Forum are kindly provided by Katie Varrati and Derrick Schultz of the after-hours studio Bustbright in Los Angeles. This large archive is made available on Flickr, in addition to a vast scrapbook of many more mid-century design works which they have kindly provided for the masses. It is a rich resource indeed!
Above is December 1951 Grafistkt Forum. Below is a December 1952. No design credit offered.

January 1955 cover. My personal favorite. ; )

December 1955. Design by Helge Rehnström.

December 1957. Design by Helge Rehnström.

December 1958. Design by Helge Rehnström.

January 1970.

Hmmm...Typewriters

2011-12-15T14:11:00.000-08:00

A gingerbread typewriter from master pastry chef Patti Paige of Baked Ideas, is now on display through January 6th at the Le Parker Meridien Hotel in New York City to benefit City Harvest. It is entirely edible including the rice paper ribbon. I suppose that is onion skin paper too?
::Via Cakehead Loves Evil

Faber and Faber Does Christmas

2011-12-14T23:55:00.000-08:00

Faber and Faber is one of the great publishing houses in London. When first established in 1929, T.S. Elliot was their first editor. Their Christmas Books catalog from 1933 (above) was illustrated by one of the great British artists of the 20th century, Edward Bawden (1903-1989). Below are a series of their Christmas cards commissioned from several other brilliant British artists of the day and printed by the Curwen Press. I'd like to thank the folks at Faber and Faber for permitting me to share these Christmas cards here. Look for many more fabulous Faber finds on their Flickrstream.

1945 card designed by Barnett Freedman (1901-1958). Just below is the interior of the same card. Freedman did many notable book illustrations and book jacket designs for Faber during the course of his career. I'm particularly fond of this set of his cards which all contain books.

1946 card design by Barnett Freedman.

1950 card design by Barnett Freedman. Below is the interior of same card.

1954 illustration of Russell Square by V.H. Drummond.

1956 card design of the 12 days of Christmas by Alan Howard. Below is the interior of the same card.

1960 card illustration by Gerald Rose. Below is the interior of same card.

1961 card illustration by David Jones. Below is the back of card also designed by David Jones.

1963 design by Gerald Rose. Interior of same card below.

1970 card design by Errol Le Cain.

Cold Type

2011-12-12T23:58:00.000-08:00

I have a thing for snow-capped letters in case it wasn't clear by now. And it's no coincidence I married a glaciologist. I do love the snowfall. Here is a small collection of ephemera with snow-covered letters to add to the holiday spirit. If it must be cold outside, at least we can celebrate the beauty of winterized letters.
Oh, and that new seasonal masthead above? It is a 1975 snowed-under version of Gill Sans Bold which you can find here.
Sidenote: the Snow Shoe brand tobacco label above is one of my favorites from the Letterology archives. It is partially cropped, but I believe it must be a wrapper from a box of tobacco, like the one Mr. Snow Shoe guy happens to be also carrying with his picture on the front.

Polar bears making polar beer on the Klemm Lager beer label from 1877. From Captain Geoffrey Spaulding's Flickrstream.

Eskimo Pie 12 Pack label from 1984. With such tight leading, the snow never had a chance to collect on the heads and shoulders of this type. The Zero wrapper below is from the 1920s and 30s. Only 1 cent! Both of these labels are from Jason Liebig's Flickrstream.

Another eBay find I missed out on. An 1898 trade card from the Leibig series on Winter sport ski-race-fishing. Who knew?

From an essay on The History of Flour Milling in Washington State from HistoryLink.org. This Snow Drift brand flour sack is from Dayton, Washington, circa 1900.

A menu from the 13th Annual Arctic Club Reunion Dinner in 1906 in New York City. From the Buttolph Menu collection at the New York Public Library. More yet to come later...

Crimespotting

2011-12-12T00:10:00.001-08:00

It has been nearly a year since my last post on the paper sculpture work of Seattle artist Patty Grazini. Some of her current work is on display at Seattle's most outlier shop and gallery, Curtis Steiner, owned and managed by artist Curtis Steiner. Grazini's latest paper sculpture work might best be described as pulp fiction noir, except her characters are based upon true stories of villains, cons, and felons uncovered in the archives of the New York Times. Each of her nefarious outlaws are delightfully portrayed as animals or birds, and measure about 18 inches in height. They are handsomely dressed in 19th century costume, with exquisite detail given to every button, ruffle, pattern, pose and expression. A beautiful banner is displayed next to each figure, with a reproduction of the original newspaper's account of their criminal activity. As curious and mysterious as these jailbirds' exploits are, it is Grazini's imaginative portrayal of these characters which provide the most engaging narratives. She single-handidly delivers poetic justice for their sensational crimes.

Miss Ruggles who was charged with arson of her home in order to collect on insurance and finance her trousseau, jumps a rope on fire.

Mary Largo, (a pigeon) who was convicted for being the brains of a New York city gang of begging imposters is sent of to the Reformatory.

Pretty Ada Turise, (a young goat) is a confirmed opium smoker at the young age of 16, and is dressed in the finest of marbled endpapers.

I absolutely marvel at Grazini's skill and patience to physically manipulate paper into beautifully tailored costumes, tools and all of the trappings of outlaw culture. Her rich color palette and patterned papers are carefully chosen to give the illusion of old fabric. To fully appreciate, you must walk slowly around them each and discover all the many suprising details: the blood on the cook's meat cleaver; the top button left undone on the knife thrower's pants; the small patches on the shirt of the cat who painted birds to look like canaries, the suitcase made of book text which belonged to a former bookseller-turned-serial-polygamist; the pretty opium poppies growing at the feet of the young opium addict. It is all so very inspired.
I want to thank Curtis Steiner for graciously permitting me to take these photos and to share them here once again. He and his staff are very welcoming and I encourage you to pay a visit to his little cabinet of wonders if you are in or near Seattle. Meanwhile, you can view a short video of Patty Grazini speaking about all of her new work at the very bottom of this long post.

A drunk and jealous knife thrower, (a sewer rat) is convicted of killing his girlfriend in a knife-throwing incident after an attempt to reform her. Whoops!

A young woman (stork) was charged with trafficking orphan babies to paying clients.

An old man (cat) is arrested for selling fake canaries which he painted yellow. No telling what became of the poor painted birds.

A cook takes aim at her employer with a gun, only to miss.

Former bookseller Marthila Hart, (a crow) stole the hearts and life-savings of many men. She had at least 11 husbands, deluding them each into giving her money for false pretense shortly after marrying.

Religious spiritualist Olive Brown (portrayed as a black cat) and her husband, Philander Brown swindled an elderly man of nearly $3000 by convincing him they had a direct line to the spirit world and could communicate with his deceased wife. Found guilty, they were soon spirited away to prison.

Air Santa is Coming to Town

2011-12-09T23:42:00.001-08:00

A 1940 invitation to attend a New Year's Eve celebration at the Police Station with Santa. I bet that party was well attended!
Love the snow-capped small caps!
:: Via The Ephemera Society, July 2011, Item of the Month.

Indoor Snow Play

2011-12-08T23:04:00.001-08:00

Snow play, for those that don't like the wet, cold snow, can best be enjoyed indoors as well. This interactive panorama of 25 colorful Christmas scenes is best enjoyed when viewed indoors. It was produced by M. Bradley (Milton I presume?) in 1870 and designed to be viewed through a window with revolving screens on hidden rolls. It's sort of a theater of the mind, without the cold, wet white stuff. Strictly for happy children as it implies. ; )
:: Via Ketterer Kunst Auction House.

Pulp Fiction Holidays

2011-12-07T23:56:00.001-08:00

I think Peter Mendelsund's design of The Snowman, by Jo Nesbø has to be one of my top favorite book cover designs this year. This is a very modernist approach to a crime novel, but it's not a cliche. The minimalist spine is stunning and is an attraction on any bookshelf.
Other pulp fiction book covers below are less minimalism; more drama. Enough to put you in the holiday spirit for some good crime novel reading.

No date on this gem, but still available on Amazon.

A 25 cent Dell paperback from 1951.

Another interpretation of Henry Kane's novel from 1952. This one is a hardback dust jacket.

Another 25 cent pot boiler from 1949.
:: The last 3 books are from Froggyboggler's Flickrstream.

A fabulous Dell cover design by George Gregg from 1943.
:: From uk vintage's Flickrstream.

A Fully Booked Shelter

2011-12-07T23:05:00.001-08:00

Snuggle up with a good outdoor adventure book a when you go camping with the Fully Booked tent from FieldCandy. You can take cover between the pages of this smart shelter, and share a favorite bedtime story with a friend. The first edition of Fully Booked sleeps two comfortably. Only 76 tents left in this edition, however you can find dozens of more designs to choose from here.

Now if only the Occupiers could occupy these tents...

US Grants Patent on Snowman Design

2011-12-07T01:02:00.001-08:00

Hide the carrots and your marshmallow and popcorn ball snowmen. On September 6, 2011, inventor Ignacio Marc Asperas of Melville, NY was granted a US patent on the Apparatus for Facilitating the Construction of a Snow Man/Woman. Mr. Asperas, who now owns the man with the long orange nose and funny hat, insists this is no snowjob. His revolutionary method for creating a better snowman and woman is outlined here in a 25-page US patent report.
With many years of experience in building snowmen, Asperas had enough of premature melt problems causing oddly shaped snowballs, misshapen torsos, adornments falling off because of deformities, or not enough snow to make a snowball because of declining snow levels. He describes having a flash of genius, when he determined a snow boulder could be lighter in weight just by rolling the snow around a hollow sphere, and made with a minimum amount of snow so it could be easily moved. The perfectly symmetrical snowballs would avoid the unevenness that results in a "big caboose" and allow for easy stacking on top of one another.
Asperas insists he has no plans to sue young children who infringe upon his new patent.
:: My thanks to Buster for this important Winter alert!

I Candy

2011-12-06T00:06:00.001-08:00

Several weeks ago, I was giving a lesson to my book design students about the pleasures and perils of using initial caps in their texts. It was purely unintentional, but many of the examples I included in my slide show lecture happened to be decorative capital I's. Of all the letters in the alphabet, the I is not a particularly beautiful letter, but these featured designers each brought them to life. The example immediately above is a hand-rendered porchoir stencil surrounding an open cap I, and it was designed by Vance Gerry (1929-2005) of the Weather Bird Press in Los Angeles, for his book Porchoir.

This lovely initial cap I designed by Saul Marks (1904-1974) of the Plantin Press in Los Angeles, was for a book he designed and printed on the influential British designer and bookbinder T.J. Cobden-Sanderson. Mark's distinguished capital I is composed entirely of printers' ornaments and is a remarkable achievement which he often skillfully repeated in his work with other letters of the alphabet. I am most grateful to my good friend Bonnie Thompson-Norman for generously sharing her fine book collection and to let me photograph many of these lovely books.

The third lovely cap I is a wood engraving designed by British artist Miriam MacGregor for the Matrix in the article, The forgotten pleasures of hand-setting. MacGregor was very successful in interpreting the concept of this story with her design of a hand setting the I in its' place as a drop cap within the text. She cleverly invites the reader to participate in this story from the beginning which is one of the primary role's of a typographer.

Last, and least in this series, is what I refer to as a raised I of Newt cap. This oversized initial cap happened to appear earlier last month in a New York Times Magazine article on the rise of Newt Gingrich as the Republican party's flavor-of-the-week frontrunner in the race to the White House. Kudos to the NYT design team for selecting the oversized slab serif for the I of Newt. A perfect fit me thinks!

Olivetti Holidays

2011-12-04T23:38:00.001-08:00

19 x 27" poster for the Olivetti Lettera 22 typewriter, 1953.
Designed by Edigio Bonfante (1922 - 2004).
:: Via SFMOMA

1957 Christmas print ad Walter Ballmer (1923 - )
for Olivetti Lettera 22 typewriters.
:: Via Ninonbooks Flickr page.

Olivetti Lettera 32 print ad designed by Walter Ballmer, 1964.
:: Via Mr. Knappy-Head.

Book in a Bag

2011-12-01T21:38:00.001-08:00

NY artist Trong G. Nguyen provides his own interpretation of a library in his ongoing series, Library. Beginning in 2007, Nguyen has used rice kernals, ink, gold paint, gold leaf and clear mylar to record entire books on grains of rice. He writes one single word in ink on each grain of rice, until he completes an entire chapter and places them all into a clear mylar bag. To distinguish the books' titles, he paints the rice grain with gold leaf. The book's title and individual chapters are noted in the top corner of each mylar rice packet with a due date card inside. His project gives new meaning to food for the soul.
:: Via Blessé par le mot

So You Want to Be an Artist

2011-11-30T22:30:00.001-08:00

Here's a way to create and learn without getting your hands messy. Learn to print linocuts like Edward Bawden or create sculptures from natural materials like Andy Goldsworthy or illustrate a children's book like Sarah Dyer. These artists and so many more demonstrate their specialized skills in videos and interactive demos where everyone is an artist. You can choose from textile arts, photography, wire sculpture, screenprinting, and dozens more materials. When completed, you can post your artworks in a gallery, print them and even email them to friends. It is fun for all ages, all brought to you by the imaginations of the people behind the site ArtisanCam in the UK.

Learn about Edward Bawden and his Kew Gardens poster work for the London Underground.

So I tried my hand at printing some of his linocuts by choosing an ink color, then the brayer and the paper...

Voila! I made a print. There is an opportunity to make a collage from all of your prints, but I quickly gave up after getting the sticky-scissors-of-death and I bailed. Next I tried screen printing.

Then I tried to make a book and draw like Sarah Dyer, but quickly learned I had to use her images to tell the story. I gave that up after I couldn't make the virtual pencil work. I think you have to be 8 years old in order to know how to write with it.

I couldn't get past the over-muscled superheroes at this venue, but don't let it stop you from trying it.

Been there, done this already, but I think it is a wonderful exercise and virtual introduction to making books. Think I may go on a photoshoot or make a visit to sculpturama now. This beats learning to draw from a matchbook cover which is pretty much where I began, but what they really need here is a how to balance your checkbook or how to eek out a living with potato prints right at home.

18th & 19th Century German Logos

2011-11-29T23:42:00.001-08:00

This album of German logos and emblems, contains more than 1000 specimens ranging from eyeglass manufacturers, blacksmiths, seal and saddle makers, tobacco sellers, and fishing rod makers. Most are woodcut and engraved images with some of many colors, and they are in relative fine condition considering many are now nearly 300 years old. Near as I can tell, this fine collection still seems to be on the auction table at KettererKunst with a suggested price of $10,530.
Time to tweet Santa!

Brief on Brázda

2011-11-28T23:24:00.001-08:00

Co se slovy Všechno poví, (or rough google-translation: The Words Tell You Everything) published by SNDK in Prague in 1964. It was playfully designed and illustrated by Pavel Brázda and his wife Vera Brázda and I can only presume it was considered to be a children's book. Maybe so, but the typographic illustrations and the degree of modern design and layout lead me to think this book is fit for a much older audience. Below are just a few of the 45 interior pages from this book.
:: Found at 108 Buddhas.

Until this book caught my eye, I had never heard of Pavel Brázda (1926- ), but I found he is a wildly prolific and imaginative artist of many styles; from a magical realism, to pop art and expressionism. Every bit an individualist, he was expelled from 3 different art acadamy's in his youth. He later attended the Higher School of Art and Design and was allowed to make a living as a so-called professional artist, but he has always carved his own path. His first large exhibition was organized in 1992 and a series of exhibitions in Prague galleries followed. A few of my most favorite works of his are the race car images below from 2003. They are reproduced from a series of paintings he made nearly 40 years earlier. You can find the editioned serigraphs for sale here.

Further explorations lead me to find the display font Brzda from Suitcase Type Foundry in Prague. It was designed specifically for a solo exhibit and book of Pavel Brázda's and it was inspired by the street motifs of his paintings. Very fine!

Back to Nature, Part 2

2011-11-27T14:27:00.001-08:00

With all the leaves nearly off the maple trees outside, it seems a good time to add another post on the other sort of wood type: the common twig type. Also referred to as rustic type or broken log lettering, it evolved from branches, sticks and twigs and an appreciation of the natural world. I find that these woodsy letters can easily reveal themselves just by gazing up into the newly exposed and barren branches of large trees. I imagine this must have been a popular pastime in the later 19th century as well, when a back to nature theme took root in Victorian society and rustic twig typography became high fashion. Such fine examples of it could be found on songsheets, childrens' books, advertising trade cards and more.
The Oliver Alphabet booklet above is from 1889. It is an advertising alphabet pamphlet for children and adults produced by the Oliver Chilled Plow Works. Each ornate letter in the booklet is lavishly illustrated to emphasize the many features of the plow. You can see more images of this booklet at Bromer Booksellers and Aleph-Bet Books.
Immediately below is the cover for Rustic Adornments for Homes of Taste, published in London in 1856. It was designed to inspire town folk to imitate nature indoors. From the Special Collections of the Geffrye Museum.

The songbook cover above from 1878 has some nice log type with an initial Cap H of shafts of wheat and a sickle.
:: Via Crackdog's Flickrstream.

An exquisite chromolith title page from an 1881 autograph album belonging to designer/illustrator Julie Reed who writes the inspired blog Bricolage.

Portion of a tattered songbook cover from mid-1800's from my own collection.

Cloth-stamped cover and title page of Mother Goose in Hieroglyphics. This is a 1962 reprint by Houghton Mifflin from my own bookshelf.

Edward Ardizzone's illustration for the catalog cover of the 1951 Festival of Britain exhibition. Printed letterpress from 4-color line blocks and featured in the 1953 Penrose Annual, Volume 47.

Davies' Naturalist's Guide, 1858, a guidebook for collecting, preparing and preserving specimens in arsenic intended for students, amateurs and travelers.
:: Via the Smithsonian Galaxy of Images.

1889 advertisement for Perkins & Company of Grand Rapids, Michigan, a manufacturer of machinery for making cedar shingles.
:: Via the Smithsonian Galaxy of Images.

Rustic letters and monogram from my 1903 penmanship handbook by John B. Wiggins, Designs for Letters and Monograms. Find many more of my posts from this book here.

Not that kind. This image is from an edition of 50 silkscreened prints of the ornithological kind by type designer and illustrator Seb Lester. It features 4 famous tits sitting on twig letters. Just a few of these prints left for sale at the Keep Calm Gallery.

This beautifully illustrated songsheet for Woodland Sketches published in 1851 was found over at What is This?. Lithographed in 2 colors, and then hand-colored in watercolors. It contains several woodsy typestyles surrounded by a rustic arbor border, all designed by some unsung twig type hero. Stunning!
You can find more examples of typographys' sticks and stems in this continuing Letterology series at part 1, Alphabetica Rustica.

Cranberry Bold

2011-11-24T09:34:00.001-08:00

Comes frozen and pairs nicely with frozen Turkey TV Dinner Bold. Serve chilled in a glass with Wild Turkey for that warm all over feeling inside. Cheers, and happy Thanksgiving!
:: Via 101 Outfits.

Carte du Jour

2011-11-23T14:56:00.001-08:00

Thanksgiving frogs? More menus from the New York Public Library's Buttolph Menu collection which contains menus from 1851 to 1930. These happen to all date between 1897 and 1900. See more menus with lovely handmade letterforms posted here.

Put A Bird In It.

2011-11-22T11:56:00.001-08:00

Maison de Julia. Fit for a literary birdbrain and comes ready to serve.
:: From Uncommon Goods.

Put A Bird On It

2011-11-22T03:16:00.001-08:00

Today's feature is a flock of birds on various title pages. Just above is one of Edward Bawdens' title page designs for Ambrose Heath's 1935 Good Soups Cook Book. See more of Bawdens' beautifully illustrated covers, title pages and linocut decorations for the series of Heaths' cook books on Ian Beck's site.
:: Found at Full Table

Birds of the United States, 1882, by Thomas Gentry. Includes 54 chromolithographs from drawings by Edwin Sheppard of American birds, nests and their eggs.
:: Via Antonio Raimo Galleries

Title for Little Bird Red & Little Bird Blue, 1861, by James Gregory. Woodcuts by N. Orr and Co. NY.
:: From the Letterology Archives

Title for A History of The Earth and Animated Nature, 1850, by Oliver Goldsmith. Sorry, but this image is from the land of lost links.

Title page for Birds, 2009, with words by Christine Fisher and illustrations by Jeffrey Fisher.

Title page for Japanese Fairy Tales, 1904, retold by Teresa Pierce Williston.
:: From the Letterology Archives.

Above is the title page for the King Penguin book Garden Birds, 1945, by Phyllis Barclay-Smith. The vignette illustration on title page and the cover illustration below are by Sylvia Varley.
:: Via Purple Podded Peas, a nice blog about the garden, the landscape and inspiration.

Moving Pictures

2011-11-20T23:16:00.001-08:00

Every so often I like to share examples of movable books, as this is a topic dear to my heart. Presented here is just a small portion of a remarkably preserved collection of movable books from the 18th and 19th centuries which all happen to be going up for auction today, November 21, 2011, at Ketterer Kunst in Hamburg, Germany. Estimated values are between $200 to 2000. As you can probably guess, I am also a big fan of the circus-themed books.
The cover above is an Italian movable book from 1890. It has 4 color lithographed plates with movable elements in good condition. Immediately below is an interior image from this book. The following 2 images are from a French edition with the same artwork printed in 1900, but it goes by the name Boum-Boum du Cirque d'été.

The Fairy Ring, by H.M. Burnside published in 1900. Printed 6 colors, with rotating plates and 18 illustrations by T.J. and E.A. Overnell.

Le Polichinelle des Champs Elyseés from 1880, presumably 1st edition with 8 color lithographed plates with movable elements. Reminds me vaguely of some of the Push Pin Group's work nearly 100 years later.

The Monkey Theater, 1894, by Lothar Meggendorfer. 1st English edition of this movable picture book. The image immediately below is one of the full page illustrations with movable elements.

The Model Menagerie, published in 1895 by Nister and Dutton in London, with 6 color lithographed pop-up plates and 26 illustrations by Weedon Foster.

The Magic Boat, 1935, 1st English edition of the Zauberboot, first published in 1929. A book to turn, move and alter. Numerous illustrations. Some with 2 pulling mechanisms and 1 with rotating mechanism as well as 1 red foil.

Cinema Book from 1926. 1st edition with 19 (12 full page) illustrations and Cinemascope viewer with red and blue foil for 3D effect. When not in use the cinemascope viewer can be tucked in the small mounted flap on front endpaper. Value estimated at $945 / 700 Euro.

Hurra! Hurra! 1920, extremely rare, with proof of only 1 other copy in the library of the Brunswick TU. Well preserved functioning movable book.

Le Cirque Arlequino, 1920, rare fully functioning copy of this book.

Artistic Pussy, 1890 by Lothar Meggendorfer (1847-1925), a gifted German illustrator and inventive paper engineer. This is a rare 1st edition with 6 color lithographed plates with movable elements and 8 illustrations.

Les transformations animées, 1900, presumably 1st edition with 8 convertible color lithographed plates and 23 illustrations. Fully functioning copy of this movable window shade format.

Transformation Pictures, 1891, illustrated by W. Foster and G.H. Thompson. British 1st edition with 6 transformable color lithographed plates and 12 illustrations throughout. Fully functioning version of this window shade movable format.

Changing Pictures, 1893, 1st edition with convertible color lithographed plates by E.S. Hardy, L. Lawson and G.H. Thompson. Fully functioning window shade movable format.

Lampart's Lebendiges Bilderbuch, 1862 rare edition of this lively German movable picture book. With 8 colored woodcut plates and movable elements, considered a masterpiece by Meggendorfer.

Le Nouveau Cirque, 1890, French, presumably 1st edition and fully functioning.

Only to Say How Do You Do, 1890. Designed in England by Raphael Tuck & Sons, and printed in Germany. Color lithographed leporello with title and 5 circus scenes.

At the Circus, 1910 1st edition from the series The Moving Picture Books.

ABC-Bücher, 1st edition German alphabet book from 1835. Estimated value of this book is $2700 / 2000 Euro.

L'Ombro-Cinéma, 1920. Optical game with 2 silhouette image rolls, 1 foil with street scene (mounted on wooden frame) and 1 figurative cardboard sheet. Estimated value is $1620 / 1200 Euro.

Neues Kasperltheater, 1905, with comic illustrations by Lothar Meggendorfer. 2nd Edition of the book originally published in 1904.

The Typographic Book

2011-11-18T00:13:00.001-08:00

This designer bookbinding from 1966 is the work of Elizabeth Greenhill (1907–2007) created for the 1963 first edition of Stanley Morison and Kenneth Day's, The Typographic Book: 1450 - 1935. Spotted for sale at Bromer Booksellers yesterday for $22,500.00.

Mid-Century Czech Tech

2011-11-16T13:17:00.001-08:00

Print materials for various Czechoslovakian technical manufacturers in the 1960s. All of these materials are available for purchase at the online bookstore 108 Buddhas in Prague. This bookstore has an amazing inventory of 20th century books, magazines, journals, children's books, posters and ephemera of Czechoslovakia which are well-catagorized and a delight to review. The cover above for the Nahrávame na Magnetofóne, was designed by Alfred Cerno in 1966.

Brochure cover design for the Magnetofon Tesla Sonet B3. 1962? No design credit unfortunately. Below are interior pages. The Sonet B3 looks like a lean, mean, mint green tape machine. A classic by any standards, just like the brochure!

I believe the cover and interior page above are from the technical journal Mladý Technik, from the 1960s. Volume 3 in the series, above, is from 1962 and designed by Antonin Dvorak. The nicely designed layout for the interior page is an article on film cameras. Below are 2 more volumes also designed by Dvorak.

Cover design for the Magnetofon Sonet Duo from 1966.

Minimilist Storytelling

2011-11-15T12:00:00.001-08:00

How to summarize a book or movie with just four icons. This was the challenge designer Kyle Tezak made for himself earlier this year. He distilled six stories into just four elements, illustrating each in three colors. Prints are available for purchase here. Tezak's Four Icon Challenge leaves Cliff Notes in the dust. It's storytelling by design...and for people with very short attention spans ; )

After Hours

2011-11-15T01:26:00.001-08:00

Why bookstores need a shop cat.
A trade card dating from the late 19th century according to Chuck Whiting who first posted this on bibliophemera. Whiting noted that this card was printed by Mayer Merkel & Ottman Lithographers in New York. It takes a good ephemera sleuth to recall their business card was archived over at Sheaff Ephemera. Nice work Whiting!

The Ties That Bind

2011-11-14T00:52:00.001-08:00

Being "friended" in the 18th century came with a heavy price. If you were presented with a friendship album from someone dear, you were obliged to honor them with an endearing image or affectionate verse in the best hand you could muster. This popular pastime remained a pursuit of the leisure class, students, and young children for nearly 200 years, until it fell out of favor in the mid-20th century. Clearly because the customary inscription was a burden to many, as any "friending" response was without aid of "white-out", spellcheck, do-overs, or even a "like" button manicule. Oh the pressure!
The two friendship albums featured here are over 200 years old and were begun just 26 years apart. The first one above dates from 1769 to 1772. It is an autograph and ephemera album belonging to a gentleman by the name of Michael Conradt, likely from Germany or Austria. It is written in German, Latin, French and Italian. The title page features a charming watercolor image of a harpist and accompanying pages include pressed flowers, cut-paper silouettes and verses in fraktur. Conradt was likely a student and his book was filled with affectionate and academic inscriptions from fellow students. Learn more about this book at The Philadelphia Rare Books & Manuscripts Company, where it is currently for sale.
Below is the friendship album of a much adored Anne Wagner inscribed with reverent verse and detailed illustrations of watercolor, pen and ink, pencil sketches and cut paper collage. Begun in 1795 and completed 39 years later in 1834. The entire Anne Wagner friendship album has been digitized and is on view in the special collections at the New York Public Library's Digital Gallery.

The Other Great Wall of China

2011-11-10T23:12:00.001-08:00

The hand of Niels Shoe Meulman of Calligraffiti has left his "ununcompromising" China ink mark on a brick wall in Beijing, China recently. The repeat pattern of the four calligraphic strokes of the "un" letterforms create a visual texture that is undeniably striking. Shoe states that these thick brush strokes symbolize the power of reversal and they draw attention to themselves equally as much as the space between the strokes. The ink is to the absence of the ink just as a positive is to a negative, black is to white, or yin to yang in this case. Shoe is every much a believer in these dualities as he is in the beauty of the letterforms themselves.
We live in a world of opposites and Shoe admits, "we can't truly be comfortable unless we were uncomfortable before. To be alive is only to be undead." Furthering this notion, he adds, "when science proudly presents its universal laws, some of us know that they are ununiversal. If you don't understand this, ununderstand."
Say what you like (or unlike), but I think his work is unbeatable.
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Post postscript: It just dawned on me, today is 11.11.11 and this work of Shoe's with all of the vertical calligraphic strokes is the perfect calligraphic metaphor for this date. It's a great day for wearing stripes!

Book People

2011-11-09T01:07:00.000-08:00

Face books.
:: From Matt Leyen's Flickrstream.

Harvey Nichols window display in Manchester, England.
:: From Lustik via Books and Stories.

Face Shelving by Alexi McCarthy.
:: From Lustik via Architectureblog.