Sunday, February 8, 2015

The Other Ernst and Esperanto

Been spending a great deal time working on editing the text for the new introduction to my translation of Ernst Collin's Pressbengel, aka The Bone Folder that will be published late this year by Don Rash's Boss Dog Press with images by John (Hans) Schiff. This introduction also forms the core for my bibliography of the writings of Ernst Collin as I am also including what I have been able to gather about Ernst's father Georg and his grandfather Wilhelm, both Court Bookbinders...

At the onset of this project 2 years ago now, one goal was to disambiguate this Ernst Collin from "the other" Ernst Collin. This was described in The Story of Two Ernsts on this blog. There I mentioned that:
To become more independent he moved to Great Britain to teach at the Berlitz School, spent some time teaching for Berlitz in Constantinople, and returned to Germany to fight in WWI.
Digital collections have been an amazing resource for this project, one of the newer useful ones being European Library and ZEFYS: Zeitungsinformationssystem of the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin. Both are useful because the search results of the European Library provide for full-text searching and link to the paper with search results highlighted. ZEFYS, the actual home for these papers is harder to use, but allows for PDF download of the that page or the whole issue which the European Library does not. Among recent newspapers added were the Berliner Tageblatt and Berliner Börsenzeitung, two daily newspapers. Searching for Ernst Collin, Georg Collin, Wilhelm Collin, what appeared but this in the on page 48 of the 31.01.1909 edition of the Berliner Tageblatt.

From ZEFYS: Zeitungsinformationssystem of the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin

Here we have "the other" Ernst giving a keynote lecture on the differences between the old and new Esperanto in Berlin for a 12 hour workshop.

Saturday, January 31, 2015

Paper Sizes

Love the DIN formats. Just keep folding the sheet in half...There are also B and C series for envelopes and other things. See also here and here.

From Brandbook @ Flicker

Monday, January 19, 2015

The Bonefolder (no, not that one)

Recently acquired volumes 1-9 (of 12) of the Falzbein (the Bone Folder), the successor publication to the Buchbinderlehrling. The first volume appeared in 1948, the last in this form in 1960. A journal like this was a bridge to trade school that continued the overall education of the young apprentices because at that time they were dropped from the university-bound track. Subjects included social studies, math, and science as they related to binding. This also included paper making, leather tanning and parchment making, cloth, and in-depth engineering of bookbinding machines... Unlike the Buchbinderlehrling, this one also included numerous cartoons in each volume by Jopf. Can't find anything about him online, so he will remain a mystery, for now...

Below a cartoon from that first volume. I'll share more with translated captions.
 
My daddy isn't here. How would you like to have your prayerbook bound,
as a springback, perforated, or like a calendar
with tear-off pages?

But all good things have to end as indicated by this note in the parent periodical, the Allgemeiner Anzeiger für Buchbindereien (AAfB), Vol. 73, 1960, pg 120:
The Falzbein will cease publication and the editorial board will say farewell in it to its readers with the March issue. That the decision to cease publication was not premature was  demonstrated by the apathy of the whole [bookbinding] trade that found no words of regret regarding the decision. So, we will publish our last articles with this issue. As of April, the Masters who subscribe to the AAfB will have 2 pages in that publication that they can refer their apprentices to.
The colleague in Germany who shared that notice reports that the new "minimal" format comprised 2 ~ 3 articles and ca 1/2 page for the serialized version of Moessner's Buchbinder ABC, a bookbinding dictionary in German. Schmedt, a large bookbinding supply company provides it online. Publication in any form ceased in 1966.

My next post will hopefully contain photos of my 9 volumes and a bit more background information. If not, I'll share another caricature or two. As in the case of the Buchbinderlehrling, the volumes were all bound by apprentices in various styles.

Saturday, December 20, 2014

J. A. Szirmai - In Memoriam

I learned today via post on Nicholas Pickwoad's blog that J.A. Szirmai passed on December 2nd. Most of us know him as the author of the iconic Archeology of Medieval Bookbinding. What I would like to do here is show a selection of his design binding, with images taken from Boek Band Kunst, catalog to an exhibit held a the University Library of Amsterdam (NL) in 1984. Copies of the richly illustrated (in b/w) catalog can still be found online. Text is in Nederlands. Captions in the original here.

Here the link to Nicholas Pickwoad's remembrance of him.

At the Koninklijke Bibliotheek/ Royal Dutch Library
Here from his publisher, Ashgate.


ALBIUS TIBULLUS: LIED DES FRIEDENS - ELEGIE I/X
Illustriert mit Original-Zinkzeichnungen von Hans Erni
Basel, Petri-Presse, 1942
Full veiney calf vellum binding with relief on both boards; dark green Fabriano endpapers; graphite top edge; dark green endbands. Bound1971. 300 x 212 x 11 mm.

HENRI MICHAUX: WIND UND STAUB
Olten, Walter Verlag, 1965
Millimeter binding with gray oasis goat trim at top and bottom edges; marbled with oil paints in gray and orange; top edge in orange; orange leather endbands; gray gold-stamped leather label. Bound 1978. 236 x 150 x 15 mm.

JOHANN WOLFGANG GOETHE: DREI MÄRCHEN
Ill. von K. -G. Hirsch, R. Munzner und R . Herold
Bound in calf leather, stained in brown tones with acrylic covers; signatures guarded with leather prior to sewing; sewn in beige thread on seven leather straps that are secured in the acrylic with gold screws; endbands sewn using late-medieval style; flexible goat leather inner "boards"/fly leaves backed with brownish Roma paper; title engraved on inside of front acrylic board. Bound 1981. 436 x 338 x 29mm.

HENRI MICHAUX: SAISIR
Avec une lithographie originate signee par l'auteur
Montpellier, Fata Morgana, 1979 (nr. 30 van de 75 speciale exx.)
Extra binding in gray dyed calfskin; dark gray Roma endpapers; gray sprinkled top edge; hand-sewn endbands; decor in cut leather (Lederschnitt) with added punching; title tooled in gold. Bound 1983. 255 x 180 x 28 mm.


As Pickwoad concluded... we "'will find it in Szirmai' will be heard for many years to come."

Saturday, November 29, 2014

Stenciled Papers

Received a copy of August Weichelt's Buntpapier-Fabrikation (3rd ed, 1927), and was elated to find a mention for Ernst Collin in the introduction that credited him with writing a new section on Java Art Papers (Java Kunstpapiere), also known as batik papers. In with Collin's section, this page of commercially made stenciled papers.


While Weichelt gives a nod to hand-made decorated papers, it is really about the industrial manufacture of these. As such, the book goes into many different printing processes, equipment, and similiar. It is richly illustrated with hundreds of tipped-in samples. The page above was not in the earlier editions. A digital version of the 2nd edition (1911) can be found online in the HathiTrust collections. Hathi version only available to those in US.

Sunday, November 16, 2014

Fritz Eberhardt - Three Lectures

Don Rash and his Boss Dog Press have just published the second title in a series of Eberhardtiana, the first having been 2003's Rules for Bookbinders. Rules is an "unfinished poem written in German and English before Fritz's death. The stanzas were lettered so that each stanza is presented in both languages on a page, separated by a sketch by Fritz." Sold out at the press, a copy is still available at Oak Knoll Books.

Three Lectures is a compilation of three lectures given by Fritz Eberhardt. The first, "On Binding" was delivered at the opening of Hand Bookbinding Today; An International Art, at Temple University in Philadelphia in 1978. The second, "Preserving the Materials of a Heritage" was given at a 1981 seminar. In it, Eberhardt talks about the book conservation challenges he and his wife faced after settling in the Philadelphia area in the mid-1950s. The third is "Bookbinding: The Craft, The Skill, The Trade, and The Art" given 1983 at the "Art and Craft of the Book: A Celebration" seminar held at Dickinson College.

Three Lectures  is printed on Frankfurt Laid paper in Linotype digital Aldus and Don Rash's own "experimental" blackletter font FritzGotische for the title and headings. The frontispiece was printed as a moku hanga woodblock print by Rash after a photograph in John & Mary's Journal by A. Pierce Bounds where the third lecture was originally published. The case binding is covered in a pastepaper with printed paper labels on spine and front board. An example of gediegene and zünftige (solid and befitting the craft/trade) bookbinding in the finest German tradition.
  • Eberhardt, Fritz. Three Lectures. Plains, PA: Boss Dog Press, 2014. 
  • 8vo. paper-covered boards, labels on spine and front cover, top edge cut, other edges uncut iv, 39+(1) pages 
  • Limited to 100 numbered copies, 70 numbered and signed by Don Rash.
  • Price: $250.00 
  • Copies in sheets for binding may also be available from the press.
Fritz Eberhardt was born in Silesia (originally part of Germany; now part of Poland) in 1917, he suffered from polio at an early age, which resulted in a permanent limp. After an apprenticeship he studied bookbinding formally under Ignatz Wiemeler at the Leipzig Academy for Graphic Arts, and calligraphy under the prodigy Rudo Spemann, and later, in Offenbach, with Hermann Zapf. Following the end of the war, he walked out of the Russian occupied zone and into West Germany. There he met his future wife, Trudi Luffert, who was also a binder. In the early 1950s the Eberhardts came to Philadelphia, where he was employed by the Library Company. Within a few years they were able to move to the farm on Old Sumneytown Pike where they would cement their reputations as two of the finest American hand binders. In addition to his binding work, Eberhardt was internationally recognized for his calligraphy. Until his death in 1998, he was a continuing voice for the artistic and cultural value of bookbinding and book works, from his early dealings with the Philadelphia book world through the debates on standards and the beginnings of institutional book arts instruction, as well as a proponent of a more professional approach for our book arts organizations. Don Rash was among his most accomplished students. [From the Guild of Book Workers 100th Anniversary Exhibition Retrospective] Depicted is his binding on Felix Timmermans, Pieter Bruegel, 1950, featuring his signature hand-cut finishing tools. 

Eberhardt was also the focus of an oral history recorded in 1993 by archivist Valerie Metzger that was published in the Guild of Book Workers' Journal, volume XXXVII, number 2, Fall 2002. This article is a must-read for those interested in the work of Eberhardt and the traditions and circumstances of bookbinding in Germany during the 1930s and 40s, but also for those working in the book arts. The introduction shared via the Guild listserv can be read here. Eberhardt was also the focus of an illustrated article "Binds That Time: Homage to a Master Bookbinder" by Tony Haverstick, published  in the June 1998 (vol 3, nr. 6) issue of the now defunct Biblio magazine. Here a link to his obituary from the Abbey Newsletter at CoOL.

Binding covered in original pastepaper
Click here to see how the pastepaper was made on the Boss Dog Press blog

Moku hanga woodblock print by Don Rash

Photograph in John & Mary's Journal by A. Pierce Bounds
 
Don Rash's Eberhardtiana series pays very fitting homage to his Meister, and mentor, Fritz Eberhardt. These lectures are as relevant today as when they were given over 30 years ago, and touch on all aspects of the life of private practice bookbinders, book artists, and conservators.

Saturday, November 8, 2014

Pressbengel in Czech, 1925

Back more intently to my Ernst Collin bibliography project, I've been finding more writings in new to me publications published both under his name and some of his pseudonyms (more about those in another post). During those searches I came across a title in Czech I had not seen before, even in WorldCat searches:


Google elegantly translates this as "Wrench: The book talks between the aesthetic bibliophile and bookbinder on the blade forged." Regardless. After further searches in WorldCat, located a total of two records, one at the Czech National Library, the other at the Bavarian State Library. The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek does not have a copy. I had also not seen it in Mejer (1925) or Mejer/Herbst (1933), Bibliographie der Buchbindereiliteratur

However, Mejer did show two articles by him in Vetrinka, a Czechoslovakian periodical – "Rozhovor o polo francouzske vazbe" and "Rozhovor o vazbe knih." Both articles from 1923/24, but Mejer didn't provide a better citation. Any Czech spekers who can help with good translations of these titles please use the Comment form at bottom. Thank you.

Here the bibliographic information for the book.
Author:          Ernst Collin
Publisher:      Praha : [Translated by Arthur Novák], 1925
Series  Title:  Knihy o knihách, Svazek 1. [Books about books, Volume 1]
Description:  52 pp., 1 "list;" 8°
Published as part of  series, it was nice to see that this was the first volume - very fitting.

I located a few copies in the Czech Republic, so using Google Translate I wrote to the dealer and asked if available... Book arrived about a week later, i.e. today.



Prag, 1925
Books about books / First Volume

From the colophon at right:
This book was translated and published at his own expense [by]
Arthur Novak in Prague. [It was] printed [by] Kryl and Scotti
in Novem Jicín in Moravia in [an edition of] 540 copies;
Of those 40 [are on] Zanders handmade paper
Numbering:

So, this is one of the un-numbered 500 copies.

And here with its "siblings" including the 1922 original, various Mandragora German reprints, the Italian and my English translations, and other publications Collin was involved with.