Some line blocks from designs by Berthold Wolpe (5)

Monday the 4th December was the last day of the Monotype-sponsored 'The Wolpe Collection' exhibition at the Type Archive and I was determined to see it before it closed. The show was occasioned by the release of new, digital versions of Albertus, Pegasus, Sachsenwald, and Fanfare and Tempest Titling, 'remastered' by Toshi Omagari of the Monotype Studio. Exhibits included some fascinating and unfamiliar photos of Rudolf Koch's Offenbach Werkstatt, of which Wolpe was a member in the 1920s, several splendid examples of his artwork for Faber dust-jackets, and some of the original 12" drawings for Albertus, made in the Monotype Drawing Office in the 1930s.
 

  Two items caught my eye in relation to the Oxford printer Vivian Ridler's collection of Wolpe line blocks, the subject of my forthcoming book. The first was artwork for the dust-jacket of Walter de la Mare's Collected Poems (1942) for which Wolpe made also twelve drawings as decorations, which are featured in my book. The other was original artwork for the Wolpes' New Year's Card for 1942, the line block of which is among the Ridler collection. Unfortunately it was too badly corroded to print from, but the image appears in the V. & A. catalogue, Berthold Wolpe: A restrospective survey, entry 152.

   Some book decorations by Berthold Wolpe, discovered in a collection of line blocks belonging to his friend Vivian Ridler is published by S.P.Tuohy in association with the Perpetua Press, Oxford, and is due to appear early in 2018. It is crown octavo (185 x 123mm), 40pp, printed in 10/12pt Monotype Bell on Zerkall mouldmade paper by the Evergreen Press and bound in full cloth by Ludlow Bookbinders. The edition is limited to 250 copies and is priced at £35 pre-publication, £38 thereafter. Orders should be sent to: S.P.Tuohy, 45 Warwick Street, Oxford, OX4 1SZ. Email: sptuohy@hotmail.com.

Anthony Froshaug

FROSHAUG (Anthony) [Designer] Ulm, 1-11. Vierteljahresbericht der Hochschule fur Gestaltung, Ulm / Quarterly bulletin... / Bulletin trimestriel...Ulm, October 1958 - May 1964. 9 vols (of 14 in all) comprising 11 numbers (of 21 in all, 1958-68). The first five vols were designed and seen through the press by Froshaug and have a distinctive format, 28 x 30cm, the other vols being A4. Ulm 4 is devoted to his article 'Visual methodology'. See Froshaug, Typography & texts, Hyphen Press, 2000, pp.63-65, 115-28. V.g. SOLD

Some line blocks from designs by Berthold Wolpe (4)

Decoration from Walter de la Mare, Collected Poems, 1942, title-page & p.135

The book I've put together from the collection of line blocks featured in my posts of 13th and 15th July and the 25th August 2016 is now in active production and should be published early next year.

The title is Some book decorations by Berthold Wolpe, discovered in a collection of line blocks belonging to his friend Vivian Ridler and it is published, with an introduction and notes, by S.P. Tuohy in association with The Perpetua Press, Oxford. 

Limited to 250 copies. Crown octavo (185 x 123mm). 40pp. set in 10/12pt ‘Monotype’ Bell and printed letterpress on Zerkall mouldmade paper by the Evergreen Press and case-bound in full cloth by Ludlow Bookbinders.

The principal contents are sets of decorations Wolpe made for two books published early in his long career as a designer in the production department of Faber & Faber: Walter de la Mare’s Collected Poems (1942) and a cookery book by F. Le Mesurier, Sauces, French and English (1947). Adding a number of new details to the established record, a concise introduction explores the background to the drawings and traces the formation in the late 1930s and early 40s of the personal and professional network, based on the London publishing house, which lay behind a lasting friendship in printing and book production.

Price: £38 (£35 pre-publication). Trade terms: one third. Postage extra at cost.

Orders to: S.P. Tuohy, 45 Warwick Street, Oxford OX4 1SZ, UK.

'English sauces', from F. Le Mesurier, Sauces, French and English, 1947

Bawden in Portugal

BAWDEN (Edward) Four prints from Bawden’s Portuguese series of linocuts first published in ‘Bawden in Portugal’, Motif, no.9, 1962, pp.19-30, comprising ‘Obidos’ (image area 30 x 32cm), ‘Lamego’ (28.5 x 39cm), ‘Beja’ (30.5 x 44cm) and ‘Evora’ (30 x 40cm). Printed in black and two or three colours. Individual prints laid down on board and framed. Paper sunned throughout but the inks fast save for the grey in ‘Beja’ which has faded significantly. A few old and unobtrusive damp-stains. A most attractive group. These are almost certainly not original linocuts but proofs of the prints as they appeared in Motif, printed from sets of line blocks. Bawden gave the original designs to the National Gallery of Scotland in the 1980s. £150

Shell peepshow

FREEDMAN (Barnett) In winter & in summer you can be sure of Shell. London: Vincent Brooks, Day & Son, n.d. [c.1935]. 145 x 236mm. Seven-fold concertina peepshow diorama, chromolithographed throughout. A few small unobtrusive repairs. A very good copy which has been preserved in a custom-made clamshell box. Rare in this condition. Sold.

Harpel's Typograph

HARPEL (Oscar H.) Typograph, or book of specimens, containing useful information, suggestions and a collection of letterpress job printing. Printed and published by the author, Cincinnati, 1870. 8vo. Pp.252. 11 plates & 19 other inset specimens, some folding, some printed in several colours + 15pp. ‘Advertisers’ Addenda’. Lacks two leaves of text, pp.3-6, and plate 1 (monochrome specimen of wood-engraving). A few small tears and one long closed tear (affecting folding plate). Orig. brown cloth stamped in gilt and black. Corners a little worn. Inner front joint cracked. Binding of first few leaves tender. Good. The original primer of late Victorian ‘artistic’ printing. Scarce. 

   

Lewis Carroll anecdote

The hand-written sheet reproduced below is an enclosure in a letter of c.1976 from the musician Sir Thomas Armstrong (1898-1994) to his friend the poet (and librettist) Anne Ridler (1912-2001). It recalls the early years of his time as Organist at Christ Church, Oxford, where he heard from the then Dean, Dr Thomas Banks Strong (1861-1944), a story about C.L.Dodgson.

'Dr Strong told me that when he was first made a member of the S[enior]. C[ommon]. R[oom]. at Ch[rist]: Ch[urch]: they used to dine on Sundays at 5.30 pm or 6 o'clock. A senior clerical student, the Revd T.J.Prout, (I hope the initials are correct) was vicar of Binsey. One dank foggy Sunday evening in late November C.L.Dodgson came in to dinner, and said, as he took his seat, "I have today walked out to Binsey for evensong with my friend Prout for the last time. As I sat, listening to his sermon, the wet green things grew up the legs of my trousers". If you remember what Binsey church was like in the winter even a generation ago you'll realize that this was no exaggeration.' Sold.

Johnson's Typographia, 1824

JOHNSON (John)  Typographia, or the Printers' Instructor; including an Account of the Origin of Printing. With biographical notices...a series of ancient and modern alphabets...an elucidation of every subject connected with the art. London: Longman, Hunt, Rees, Orme Brown & Green, 1824. 

   2 vols. 8vo. Port. of Caxton, pp. [xii], 610, [10] (index); port. of Johnson, pp.[iv], iv, 664, [16] (index). Numerous engr. illusts. Uncut in orig. cloth-backed boards, printed spine labels (partly worn away in vol.2). Covers worn. Sound. First few leaves of second vol. a little water-stained at the head, otherwise internally clean and bright. The smaller of the two large paper editions. Scarce in this uncut state. Bigmore & Wyman I, 371-3; PHS E12.  (Stock ref 1117) £225

 

Imprimatur

BAUERSCHE GIESSEREI Imprimatur. Frankfurt a.M.: n.d. [1955]. 4to printed card portfolio containing 32 loose specimens of the type in use. Designed by Walter Baum.   (Stock ref 2276) £25

Volta

BAUERSCHE GIESSEREI Volta. Frankfurt a.M.: n.d. [1955]. 4to printed card portfolio containing 30 loose specimens of the type in use. A Clarendon revival, somewhat modernised, designed by Konrad Friedrich Bauer and Walter Baum. (Stock ref 2277) £25

Futura

BAUERSCHE GIESSEREI Futura. Nach zeichnungen von Paul Renner in zwanzig Garnituren geschnitten. [Together with:] Futura. Anwendungen. Frankfurt a.M.: n.d. [c.1955]. 2 vols. 4to. Pp.[24], paperback, sewn, and a printed card portfolio containing 28 loose specimens of the type in use.  (Stock ref 2275)  Sold.

Samuel Jones & Co., Noncurling Gummed Papers, c.1935

JONES (Samuel) & Co.[Gummed & Coated Paper Makers]: [Cover title:] Noncurling Gummed Papers. [Inner title:] Samples and suggestions for users of gummed papers. London: Bridewell Place EC4, n.d. [c.1935]. Oblong 4to. 7 leaves of prelims & c.100 leaves of specimens, in a variety of weights, colours and finishes, printed rectos only. Gummed papers for every conceivable use in package labelling, advertising and decoration. A striking and unusual trade catalogue in fine condition. Orig. gold, silver and red embossed cloth boards. Slipcase. In orig. mailing box (worn).  (Stock ref 2269) SOLD

Paul Koch, Fritz Arnold and the Fursteneck Press

FURSTENECK (Werkstatt Haus zum) [Paul KOCH & Fritz ARNOLD]: A large collection of printed work, some from the handpress, consisting largely of music printing and diverse jobbing ephemera, together with a few examples of work designed or originated but not printed by the Werkstatt. Frankfurt am Main: 1933-40 (for the most part). 

   Various sizes, from broadsheet to small ex-libris, approx. 100 pieces (including a few duplicates), 61 mounted (including a few pamphlets) on 31 pieces of green card, 30 x 24.5cm, and 39 loose, together with 6 loose pamphlets (five sewn into wrappers), 5 books, cloth or boards (including J.S.Bach, Drei Menuette, printed (and signed) by Paul Koch, the Officina Vindobonensis, Vienna, 1932, for Georg Kallmeyer, Wollfenbuttel-Berlin), and copies of three contemporary periodicals featuring articles by or about Koch, one of which is inscribed by him. The Bach Menuette is lacking its backstrip, two of the other books are a little rubbed, otherwise the collection is in fine condition.

   The collection includes bookplates, handbills, concert programmes, two fine broadside calendars for the years 1936 and 1938, a striking coloured decorative map by Willi Harwerth, and several fine examples of Paul Koch’s music printing, in various formats. Some pieces include signs, decorations or vignettes, some hand-coloured, by Rudolf Koch, Fritz Kredel, Willi Harwerth, Karl Vollmer and others. Most employ types designed by Rudolph Koch or Victor Hammer.

   The core of this collection originated in a visit to Koch in Frankfurt in August 1936 by Vivian Ridler, David Bland and Thea Brown. Ridler and Bland were planning a book on Koch’s work to be published the following year by their (semi-private) Perpetua Press. Unfortunately this project was overtaken by events: first, both men’s need to commence settled careers, Ridler initially as assistant to John Johnson at the University Press, Oxford, Bland as production manager at Faber (both jobs began around April 1937), and then the catastrophe of world war which neither Fritz Arnold nor Paul Koch would survive.

   See Jerry Cinamon, ‘Paul Koch, Master Printer of Music’, and ‘Paul Koch and Fritz Arnold’, The Private Library, 6^th Series, 2:3, Autumn 2009, pp.132-48; 2:4, Winter 2009, pp.170-85. Also Will Carter (another visitor to Koch), ‘It all started in Frankfurt in 1938’, pp.113-15 in ABC-XYZapf, ed. by John Dreyfus & K.Erichson, London, 1989. Sold.