An election poster attacking the government of Adolf Hitler and promoting the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) in the March 1933 German federal election, the last election in Germany before the Nazi Party banned all other political parties.

The headline (“Reward 1,000 Reichsmark”) uses a version of Inserat-Grotesk schmal, possibly the schmalfett style of Phönix-Groteske by Krebs. The other typefaces are all by this Frankfurt/Main type foundry: the bulk of the text uses fette Merian-Fraktur, though there are two lines in schmale fette Brentano-Fraktur. The word “dass” at the beginning of each point is in halbfette Federzug-Antiqua, and the numeral in “Liste 2” likely is from Freihand-Groteske.

The poster was printed by the Offenbacher Abendblatt, a party-owned newspaper founded in 1874 which had to cease publication shortly after when the National Socialists came to power.

Source: archive.org Internet Archive. License: All Rights Reserved.

Carin Goldberg was fond of Eagle Bold (1934) and its precursor, Novel Gothic (1928). For the album cover of pianist Ruth Laredo’s interpretation of Tchaikovsky’s The Seasons, Op. 37a, she paired the latter with another, stylistically related interbellum display sans: Messe-Grotesk was issued by the German AG für Schriftgießerei und Maschinenbau in 1921. The all-caps face is a good deal heavier than Novel Gothic and exhibits more Art Deco traits, like the diamond-shaped crossbars in A E H. It’s used with very loose letterspacing, compare to Goldberg’s use of Eagle for Kurt Vonnegut and of Novel Gothic for Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares.

The vignettes – leaves, stars, birds, and dancing couples in folk costumes – look like they might have been sourced from a period foundry catalog. In fact, they’re credited to illustrator Robert Van Nutt.

Source: archive.org Internet Archive. License: All Rights Reserved.

Text on the back cover is set in some Garamond, apparently a phototype version of ATF Garamond (or Amsterdamer Garamont).

Deutsche Fotothek dates this photograph to “around 1935/1940”.

Historic image of a printing firm’s building in Frohburg, Saxony (Germany). The firm printed newspapers such as Frohburger Wochenblatt and later Wirtschafts-Anzeiger, the latter using Triumph (1929) for its masthead. The signage on the building was created using the same typeface.

Parts of the signage on the landmarked building have survived until today: the word “Buchdruckerei” (print shop), the stylized printers coats of arms, as well as a ceramic relief showing Johannes Gutenberg created by Kurt Feuerriegel.

Nameplate of the Wirtschafts-Anzeiger issue from January 30, 1943. The smaller lines are set in Romana and Nofretete.

1919 edition, featuring Nero (Schriftguss, before 1914), a typeface also sold by various other foundries. Poppelbaum in Vienna had it under the name Block.

Erwin Le Mang’s Hypnosis and Suggestion offers “a course through the whole field of hypnotism”, in “12 teaching letters for self-study”. The booklet was printed in a number of editions, many of which show distinct cover designs. The general layout is similar: the title is set in all caps, stacked and justified, with the word “und” framed by lines or ornaments; and the whole text block is enclosed in decorative border elements. The fonts in use are different for each of the designs.

1921 edition featuring Neue Römische Antiqua halbfett, a wider variant of Grimm-Antiqua (Klinkhardt, c.1908)

1922 edition, featuring Messe-Grotesk (AG für Schriftgießerei u. M., 1921) and Clio (Ludwig Wagner, c.1904)

The Mittelrheinisches Musikfest, or Middle Rhine Music Festival, took place in May 1925. It was organized in Trier, Germany, in cooperation with the cities of Saarbrücken and Coblenz (since 1926 spelled Koblenz), and directed by Heinrich Klapstein.

The cover and the title page of the program booklet feature a typeface that was issued only a year or two before: Messe-Grotesk halbfett from 1923 is an extension to Messe-Grotesk-Versalien, a black all-caps design that was first cast in 1921. The series by the AG für Schriftgießerei und Maschinenbau in Offenbach/Main was concluded in 1927 with an inline version. In the 1930s, Berthold sold it abroad under the name Advertisement Grotesque.

The design by Albert Auspurg is characterized by diamond-shaped middle bars (in E, F, H), triangular forms (A, i), and descending diagonals (K, M, R, S). Note the compact capital umlauts in the stacked and justified setting on the cover, and the ligature for ck (but not for ch, although there was one) on the title page.

Fatima, Capitol, Supremo-Versalien

Active in Amsterdam in the 1920s–50s (and maybe later), P. van Dijk was a supplier of printing machines and materials, including typefaces. In the Tholenaar Collection at Letterform Archive are several leaflets and booklets from the company advertising type from the Dresden-based foundry Schriftguss.

This 1934 price list shows 16 type families alongside their sizes, weight, and prices. The title in Appell reads “De mooiste letersoorten voor Handels- en Reclamewerk van Schriftguss” (The most beautiful typefaces for commercial and advertising work from Schriftguss). For the company name at the top, one of Schriftguss’s typefaces, the Intermezzo, a novel display face with each letter segmented into two parts, is set in two colors, with a line of Super-Grotesk through the center.

See the complete trifold leaflet in Letterform’s Online Archive.

Intermezzo, Luxor, Drescher-Versalien, Symbol-Versalien

Instruction manual for Fruco’s “patented egg beater with valve”, also convenient to beat cream, mayonnaise, and butter.

Invoice from a hauling company in Nürnberg-Erlenstegen, issued in July 1920 to Herrn Göselt, a local merchant (Kaufmann dahier) for carting six stere (Steer) of wood for Zeltner — possibly the local brewery of the same name?

The typography uses both weights of Mars, a so-called neudeutsche Schrift from the Jugendstil period that brings together elements of blackletter and roman type. Designed by Albert Auspurg, Mars and its bold companion were issued by the A.-G. für Schriftgießerei und Maschinenbau in Offenbach in 1906 and 1909, respectively.

In 1939, Georg Kalb had a tragic accident and crashed his wagon into the Pegnitz river. After his death, his brother — who, oddly enough, was named Georg as well — continued the hauling business. Georg Kalb (1870–1941), who may have been this brother or yet another family member with the same name, was the landlord of the Kalbsgarten. This popular countryside inn existed until 1969, see a picture from 1911 and the address on Google Street View.

My mother's swimming certificate from Dec 1942. It really helps: a month later she was married! Zuiderbad then was the largest covered swimming school in the world.

The typeface is Gnom (Schelter & Giesecke, 1914), with its original extrawide ‘M’.

Published by Penguin Books January 1972 with cover art by David Pelham. The image shows a 1973 reprint.

To Pelham’s surprise his cog-eyed droog went on to acquire iconic status and is now regarded as one of the best book covers of all time. It is probably the longest serving cover of all time too, since it remained in use for over twenty-five years, except for a reprint in 1973 which retained the strap-line ‘A TERRIFYING NOVEL ... NOW A TERRIFYING FILM’ but used the artwork from Philip Castle’s film poster. — James Pardey