Vom Fels zum Meer (“From rock to sea”) is an “illustrated journal for the German house” edited by Wilhelm Spemann (1844–1910) and published from 1881 to 1917. Between 1890 and 1897, Spemann’s publishing house was merged into Union Deutsche Verlagsgesellschaft, a company he had founded together with Adolf Kröner (1836–1911).

The shown letter was sent in January 1894 to one of the family journal’s advertisers, the “Duc” Cycle Co. in Herzogenbusch, that is ’s-Hertogenbosch in the Netherlands. “Duc” was a brand by B.A. Jansen who imported bicycles manufactured by the Quinton Cycle Co. in Coventry, England. Pasted in the bottom left corner is a sample of the ad that was to be included in Vom Fels zum Meer.

The text block at the top right features five different blackletter typefaces. The title is set in Renaissance-Fraktur, with the subtitle added in a version of Original-Gotisch. “Monats-Ausgabe” uses a German adaptation of Tudor Black, possibly Psalter-Gotisch by Krebs. Last but not least, we get to see Flinsch’s Halbfette Schwabacher and Albert Anklam’s Neue Schwabacher.

Detail

Label from 1962

The labels of Enrico Piretti use Tudor Black for the luthier’s name – in Italy, this blackletter design went under the names Gotico neretta (by FTC) and Urbino (by Fondografica). The remaining words are added in sans-serif caps. The wide L in combination with the narrow A suggest it could be Breite halbfette Grotesk, which was sold in Italy under the names Alala (by Reggiani) and Etrusco nero (by Nebiolo). It’s not clear if the formal script used for the branded mark is dervied from a typeface.

Piretti’s labels were typically signed, and the place where the instruments were made – here Bologna – was written in by hand.

Enrico Piretti (Bologna, 1911–1993) was an Italian luthier, one of the most important of the fifties and eighties of the 20th century. His classical guitars and violins have a good international reputation for their sound qualities and their aesthetic care. Piretti attended the Italian School of Violin Making of which the famous luthier Luigi Mozzani, already the creator of the famous flat-bottomed pan mandolin, was the director. In 1949 Piretti won the Cremona International Violin Making Competition, and obtained other important awards during his career. In the 1960s he devoted himself to the creation of archtop electro-acoustic guitars. Alongside the contemporary tube amplifiers, Davoli and Binson were instruments of great value.

Label from 1970

An odd little commercial street plan of the London County Council's vast housing estate at Becontree in Essex. Given the pace of construction and development at the time, 1930, there would have been a requirement to keep up to date with the extensions to housing areas, new streets and infrastructure and that could account for this being the ‘fourth edition’.

As is the case with these small plans, retailing at 3d., production costs would have been kept down by the sale of advertising on the map and cover. The front cover is for the Castle Sports Depot that dealt with two stalwards of 1930s consumerism – cycling and gramophones! The map itself has been annotated with what looks like church sites and what are possibly some sort of areas or zones of interest to the map’s owner – possibly areas for canvassing or leafleting?

Becontree was the largest of the LCC’s massive housing drive in post-WW1 years that was driven by slum clearances of inner-city slums, the need to lower densities and also to provide for a growing population. From the start of works in 1921 until formal ‘completion’ in 1935 around 26,000 homes were completed to home around 100,000 people. Attached administratively, mostly, to Dagenham, it caused this previously small Essex village to expand massively and this was helped along by construction of more local sources of employment such as Ford Motors massive plants and May & Baker chemicals. The estate, like many others, was seen as rather sterile in that amenities such as shops and pubs were seen as being sparse and late to be developed and the major issue, that of distance from the traditional East End where many had links back to, made travel by public transport slow and expensive. This was despite the development of the District line services, over existing LMSR lines, to serve the area as seen on the map.

“Street Reference Plan” is in Tudor Black. The largest lines appear to be set in caps from a bold condensed style of some Cheltenham, possibly Stevens’s Sandringham, or maybe Winchester. There’s also Condensed Sans Serif No. 7 or similar (“Cycles”, “Gramophones”) and Grotesque No. 8 (year and price), two widths of Windsor, as well as two or more unidentified oldstyle romans. Note the use of swastika ornaments for the border, something that would have been unthinkable to see in British printing just a few years later.

Tudor Black in a bat-shaped silhouette for the cover of Die Fledermaus Overture, a record with classical music credited to the (non-existent) Imperial Viennese Concert Orchestra and released by Tops Masterpieces Records, USA.

Die Fledermaus (English: The Flittermouse or The Bat, sometimes called The Revenge of the Bat) is an operetta composed by Johann Strauss II, which premiered in 1874. Tudor Black premiered at Miller & Richard in 1878.

The album additionally includes Träumerei, Op. 15, No. 7 by Robert Schumann, Barcarolle by Jacques Offenbach (both titles set in caps from Futura), and The Merry Widow Overture by Franz Lehár (set in Franklin Gothic Wide). Cover design by Horace Sadowsky (1924–1988). The album is undated, but it must have been issued after 1952, when Franklin Gothic Wide was released. The Tops Masterpieces logo combines Chisel and Weiss.

[More info on Discogs]

Bayerischer Bauernvereins-Kalender für das Jahr 1926 (volume 21).

From circa 1904 to 1933, the Zentralstelle der christlichen Bauernvereine (“Central Office of the Christian Farmers’ Associations”) in Regensburg published a richly illustrated annual calendar.

The title page design of the issues for 1912 (volume 9, shown below) and 1926 (volume 21) are largely identical. A decorated initial B is combined with the title set in Bradley. This face was known in Germany as Amerikanische Altgotisch, among other names, and is also used for the publisher’s name. The line with the year features Morris-Gotisch or one of the other German copies of Morris Troy, with numerals from Römische Antiqua. It’s framed by flower ornaments. The red top line with the volume information uses Original-Gotisch for the 1926 issue. In the older one, this line appears to be set in Mediaeval-Gotisch or Psalter-Gotisch, which are versions of Tudor Black. This typeface can also be seen in use for the printer’s credit in both issues.

The periodical included a Läutordnung (rules for the ringing of church bells), weather lore, hagiographies, a market calendar with a directory of all market places in Bavaria, and more. [Schlegl] It was printed by G.J. Manz in Munich.

The Bayerischer Christlicher Bauernverein was the regional association of the local farmers’ societies. “It saw itself as a middle-class agricultural interest group and, unlike the Bayerischer Bauernbund, did not act as a political party. Nevertheless, the Bauernverein played an important role in the political Catholicism, as it was ideologically and personally closely associated with the Zentrum and, from 1918, with the Bavarian People’s Party. During the Weimar period, the Christian Farmers’ Association had up to 150,000 members, with Georg Heim (1865–1938) as the central leader.” – Oliver Braun

Bayerischer Bauernvereins-Kalender für das Jahr 1912 (volume 9), with a frontispiece by Martin Feuerstein, depicting Louis the Saint bringing the Crown of Thorns to Paris.