MARTI (Walter) Typographie. Lucerne: Walter Marti, 1957. 4to. 30 cm. Pp. 134. Striking album of designs for a variety of mostly ephemeral printed matter, making extensive use of colour, geometric form, etc. Orig. printed boards. Wire spiral binding. A fine copy. SOLD
Der Wassermann. Studienblätter für Büchermacher. Stuttgart: Julius Hoffmann Verlag, [1945]. Edition of about 70 copies. Small folio. 4 vols. Loose bifoliums (largely), some in gatherings. Pp. 168; [iv], 156; 180; [iv], 144. Orig. cloth and board portfolios (worn but sound). Printed labels. A good set. Scarce. SOLD
Schneidler’s unfinished master-work – except for vol. 3, a
collection of fragments, really - consists largely of illustrative material for a textbook of the graphic arts programme he taught and directed (with
various specialist departmental heads) at the Stuttgart state academy of
applied arts between the two world wars (and for a short time after 1946). The
work is assembled mainly from sheets printed there between about 1925 and 1934.
(Volume 3 appeared separately in 1934 but the work was not published as a whole
until 1945.)
The material is gathered by subject. Vol. 1 consists mainly of
studies in book typography; vol. 2 covers non-typographic lettering; vol. 3 is
more focused and consists of designs for an edition of Horace: it is the only
part of the work considered to have been completed; vol. 4 is chiefly devoted
to illustration and ornament, with some packaging design.
The title is best translated as 'the water-carrier' and refers
to the astrological sign of Aquarius whose characteristic personality traits
Schneidler believed should be cultivated by the graphic arts student.
A small number of presentation copies of this work contain some
extra sheets. This copy corresponds in extent to the Newberry Library copy
described by Georgianna Greenwood below and was bought from Hoffmann at about
the same time, in the early 1950s (Hoffmann’s original invoice is present). Fewer
than a dozen copies of Der Wassermann can be located in European and
North American institutional libraries and there seems to be only one in the UK,
in Cambridge University Library.
Schneidler was the designer of the script typeface Legende and his powerful calligraphy provides some of the strongest material in Der Wassermann. More generally, the work reflects a continuing conservative
tradition of graphic arts training (the ‘Stuttgart school’) and its negotiation
with the forces of modernism.
Schneidler left a large body of graphic and fine artwork but
he is perhaps best known as a teacher. Among his many notable students were
Walter Brudi, Eric Carle, Albert Kapr, Imre Reiner and Georg Trump.
SOURCES
Georgianna Greenwood, ‘Der Wassermann by F.H. Ernst
Schneidler, an appreciation’, in Alphabet: the journal of the friends of
calligraphy, 26:1, Fall 2000. 32pp, with 31 illustrations selected by Paul
Shaw.
Sandra Lauenstein, ‘Schindler’s opus magnum’, pp. 147ff, in Buch
Kunst Schrift F.H. Ernst Schneidler, ed. by Nils Buttner et al., Stuttgart,
2013.
Der Wassermann is the subject of a
small, Grolier Club online exhibition, with brief notes by Jerry Kelly:
grolierclub.omeka.net/items/show389
The first article in the first number (1949) of Herbert Spencer’s modernist periodical Typographica
is devoted to Schneidler’s experimental calligraphy, though the examples
reproduced there are more recent than those in Der Wassermann which
curiously goes unnoticed in G. K. Schauer’s (somewhat opaque) accompanying text.
The Fleuron, nos. 1-7 [all published]. Ed. by Oliver Simon [later] Stanley Morison. London: At the Office of 'The Fleuron' [later] Cambridge: The University Press. 1923-30. 7 vols. 4to. 28 cm. Insets. Plates. Illusts. Vol. 1 quarter cloth, the rest full cloth. Boards to vol. 1 foxed, some spotting elsewhere, but generally a nice, crisp set, vols 2 & 3 in the original dustwrappers (head of vol 2 chipped). £650
'For me, collecting volume VII of The Fleuron from Zwemmer's in the Charing Cross Road was as heady an aesthetic experience as my first sight of Venice. For others, too. That notable wood engraver, Reynolds Stone...told me of a similar experience. Entering the Cambridge University Press as a trainee...he discovered that one of the printers there...Mr Nobbs, had a complete set of The Fleuron. That journal of typography changed Stone's life, and it changed mine.'
Robert Harling, from his foreword to Grant Shipcott, Typographical periodicals between the wars, Oxford Polytechnic Press, Oxford, 1980.
1 ADANA [Printers’ suppliers] Catalogue [and Price List] of type, blocks, accessories, inks and publications. No. 316 [316B]. Twickenham, [1976-77]. 2 vols. 8vo. Pp. 44; 28. Wrappers, wire-stitched. B3. £10
2 ALEMBIC PRESS. Oxford Guild of Printers Print-in [four broadsheet collections]. OGP members at the Alewmbic Press, Marcham, 1999-2003. 4to (A4) sheets printed one side only.
New year printers’ gatherings at Claire and David Bolton’s press. The work themed as follows: ‘Printers’ devices’, 6 leaves, including some gold printing, 1999; ‘Oxford’, 7 leaves, 2001; ‘Take a letter’, 9 leaves, 2002; and ‘Trees & wood’, 10 leaves, 2003. Some use of colour, woodletter, wood engravings, etc. S13. £25
3 DODMAN PRESS. Five small pieces comprising Travelling through. Extracts from the burial records of Barley in Hertfordshire, 1978, 65 copies; John Gohorry & Roger Burford Mason, Norfolk poems, 1978; and three ephemera including two Christmas cards. Hitchin, 1976-78. Small 8vo pamphlets, etc. Wrappers, wire-stitched. B3. £8
4 MANDEVILLE PRESS. FULLER (John), Lawrence SAIL, Andrew WATERMAN, et al., A Mandeville Fifteen. Hitchin, Autumn 1976. 8vo. Pp. [24]. Wrappers, wire-stitched. With 7 Mandeville Press fliers, 1975-77, and Peter Scupham, Building a cathedral, pp. [3], poem, signed by the author, laid in. B6. £8
5 ORDER OF SERVICE. Carols
for printers at 6.00 p.m. Tuesday, 14th December 1976 at St Bride’s
Church, Fleet Street in the City of London. Tall 8vo. Pp. [8]. Printed
wrapper, wire-stitched. Sponsored by the BPIF, the NGA, NUJ, etc. Printed by
Harrisons. B5. £5
6 PARDOE (F.E.) Four
pieces from his press, comprising Edward Lowbury, The Ring [poem], 1979,
135 copies; R. G. Broadhurst, Twelve Engravings on Wood, 1978, 100 copies;
fephorisms & flowers, 1977, 60 copies; and a Christmas card, 1977.
Birmingham, 1977-79. 8vo and down. Printed wrappers. B4. £15
7 PRIVATE PRESS Christmas and new year cards, 13 pieces, two hand-coloured, including Whittington Press, Jonathan and Phyllida Gili, Peter Guy. Late 1970s. Various formats. S13. £10
9 WYNKYN DE WORDE SOCIETY. A collection of pamphlets, menus and other ephemera, mostly 1975-78, including five substantial texts of talks, etc., by Max Reinhardt (on Nonesuch Press), Ward Ritchie, Nigel Tangye, et al., and including some nice work from the John Roberts Press. 13 pieces. B1. £15
DIDEROT (Denis) & Jean Le Rond d’ALEMBERT, [Recueil de planches sur les sciences, les arts libéraux, et les arts méchaniques: avec leur explication…] Fonderie en caracteres d’imprimerie, précédée de la gravure des poinçons. Les deux arts contenant huit planches. [Paris, 1763]. Disbound folio. 425 x 275 mm. 3pp. letterpress text, in two columns, and 8 engraved plates. Excellent. £165
A nice fresh set of the plates on typefounding from the Encyclopédie.
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