From the category archives:

Design

Pan.  Years I-V (all published). Edited by Julius Meier-Graefe and Otto Julius Bierbaum.  A complete run of all five years, bound in 21 parts as issued  (altogether 347, 351, 266, 267, 279 pp.)  Sm. folio.  Orig. wrpps., a few chips and tears at edges, some covers professionally repaired.  Berlin (Genossenschaft Pan) 1895-1899.  (45601)

Pan.  Cover detail.  Jahrgang 1, no. 1.  April/May 1895.

Pan. Cover detail. Jahrgang 1, no. 1. April/May 1895.

In the late 19th Century, a new moon was rising over the old continent. Some caught sight of its glinting rays more quickly than others. In Berlin, the fiercely intellectual, young art critic Julius Meier-Graefe drew on his connections in Paris, Stockholm, Vienna and London to illuminate the pages of an ambitious new arts journal with works by the era’s brightest stars in painting and the graphic arts, among them Toulouse-Lautrec, Signac, Seurat, Vallotton and Zorn.

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Kitazawa Yoshio, Hamada Masuji, Wantanabe Soshu, Tatsuke Yoichiro, et al. Gendai Shogyo Bijutsu Zenshu.  (“The Complete Commercial Artist”). 24-volume-illustrated series (each vol. approx. 100-150 pp. including plates).  4to.  Wrpps.  Tokyo (Ars) 1927-1930.  (46209)

Over the past five years or so, a loose cadre of visual data miners at blogs including BibliOdyssey, 50 Watts, but does it float, Accidental Mysteries, Agence Eureka, and La Boite Verte (to name but a few) have collectively developed an on-line pictorial archive of inestimable value to artists and graphic designers who wish to renew their powers in the streams of history. [click to continue…]

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Anarchy.  A Journal of Anarchist Ideas. Vol. 1, no. 1 (Mar. 1961) – vol. 10, no. 12 (Dec. 1970) [Alternately numbered nos. 1-118.] (entire first series). 118 numbers in ten consecutively paginated volumes.  8vo.  Illus. wrpps.

In the early 1960s, the editors of Freedom Press, those stalwart protectors of the anarchist tradition in Great Britain, scented change on the wind.  Young people, many of them students, were looking to the libertarian left to make sense of vast social upheavals in post-war London and other urban centers.  The anarchist movement’s anti-authoritarian principles and clearly articulated positions on affordable housing, social justice, and inviolate personal freedom carried a strong resonance. Suddenly, the imprint’s brand of politically-engaged anarchism was no longer the métier solely of bearded Kropotkin scholars.

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“Le degré de perfection des productions de l’imprimerie d’un pays est une des marques de son degré de civilisation.” Printing in Japan, ca. 1915.

Thumbnail image for “Le degré de perfection des productions de l’imprimerie d’un pays est une des marques de son degré de civilisation.” Printing in Japan, ca. 1915. April 4, 2011

Sawada, Yozo. Insatsu Taikan (Great Atlas of Printing).  Unpaginated album.  Sm. folio.  Silk-covered boards, tie-bound.  Osaka (Nihon Insatsu Kaisha) 1915.  [46467] Following the death of his father, the Meiji Emperor, on July 30, 1912, Crown Prince Yoshihito ascended to the Chrysanthemum Throne of Japan to become the Taishō Emperor. After three years of Imperial preparations, [...]

“What Power is This?” Shinjuku Playmap & Tokyo Graphic Design, ca. 1970.

What Power is This? February 23, 2011

Teruhiko Yumura, et al.-. Shinjuku Playmap.  Nos. 1 (July 1969) through 30 (December 1971) (all published in the first series).  8vo.  Wrpps., covers illustrated by Teruhiko Yumura (also known as King Terry and Terry Johnson).  Tokyo 1969-1971.  [46471]   What power is this, indeed? The global tidal wave of youth culture rebellion and experimentation of [...]

Compositions for Silk Damask & Other Fabrics (homage to Morton Feldman)

Thumbnail image for Compositions for Silk Damask & Other Fabrics (homage to Morton Feldman) February 8, 2011

(Fabric weaving manuscript).- Felix, M. & J. Mercier. Cahier de Théorie 4e Année 3e. N.p. (Lyon?) n.d. (circa 1895). [44915] Though we know little about the person who composed it (“J. Mercier,” seemingly a student in the 4th-year class of  one “Professeur M. Felix”), Cahier de Théorie 4e Année 3e offers a rich window into [...]

“Everything has its Limit! Even Miniskirts…” Aerial propaganda leaflets on the inner German border, 1965-1969.

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5167/5246880477_16618b2992_t.jpg December 13, 2010

Unique Dossier.- “Propaganda; British Frontier Service / 511.  Vol. II: Opened 30-2-65, Closed 18 Jun 69.” [46337] In the mid 1960s, a heated barrage of artillery over the inner German border (separating the Soviet and Western occupation zones) delivered neither explosives nor shrapnel, but aerial propaganda leaflets. This was, after all, the cold war, and [...]

International Sign Painters of the World, Unite and Take Over.

Thumbnail image for International Sign Painters of the World, Unite and Take Over. August 26, 2010

Arrenbrecht, Wilhelm. Der Schriftenmaler.  Internationales Schriften-Vorlage-Werk. Cologne, ca. 1895.  [46260] Once upon a time, merchants hoping to make a good impression on potential customers didn’t hire graphical user interface consultants, they hired top-flight sign painters.  Elegant hand-painted lettering in a shop window announced to passers-by that the proprietor had class and sophistication.  Based on an [...]

The Bois de Boulogne and Sem au Bois: Belle Epoque Paris and the Pageantry of the Passing Spectacle

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1012/4596067321_1c5b7c68e9_t.jpg May 11, 2010

Sem (pseudonym for Georges Goursat).  Sem au Bois (title stamped in gilt on front cover).  N.p. (Paris?) ca. 1908.   Signed and dated 29/4/08 in pencil on the last plate; 6 other plates with the artist’s printed insignia.  [45958] A jewel in the crown of Baron Haussmann’s modernized Paris, the Bois de Boulogne opened as a [...]

Radical Newspapers and ‘The Graphic Design of Urgency’

Free Angela January 15, 2010

Collection of Mid-century American and Canadian Leftist Literature; 184 individual issues of 59 serials comprising a unique collection of publications from the 1920s to the 1990s. [45779] F.A. Bernett Books recently acquired a private collection of leftist periodicals. In cataloging the material, I was struck over and over again by a particular quality of the [...]

Lucien Vogel’s Le Style Parisien

Le Style Parisien January 7, 2010

Le Style Parisien.  Numbers 1 (July 1915) through 7 (February 1916) (all published; lacking 8 pp. text). Paris (Librairie Centrale des Beaux-Arts) 1915-1916.  [45884] It may not have been the most avant-garde publication of its time, but Le Style Parisien served as an important bridge between the emerging capitals of  European fashion — chiefly Paris [...]

Oceanliners and Graphic Designers: Carl Hinkefuss, Wilhelm Deffke and the Branding of the SS Imperator

Thumbnail image for Oceanliners and Graphic Designers: Carl Hinkefuss, Wilhelm Deffke and the Branding of the SS Imperator December 19, 2009

Hamburg-Amerikanische Packetfahrt-Actien-Gesellschaft.  Literarisches Bureau. Turbinen-Schnelldampfer Imperator: Hamburg-Amerika Linie.  Hamburg (Kunstanstalt H. G. Rahtgens for Hamburg-Amerika Linie) 1913. [45805] Hamburg-Amerikanische Packetfahrt-Actien-Gesellschaft.  Literarisches Bureau.   Imperator auf See, 1913. Berlin (Otto Elsner/ W. H. Deffke for Hamburg-Amerika Linie) n.d. (1913). [42926] These two lavishly produced promotional booklets offer a seductive glimpse into the luxurious world of early [...]

Joseph Urban’s Rainbow City

Thumbnail image for Joseph Urban’s Rainbow City December 9, 2009

(Designs by Joseph Urban.)  Progress in Industrial Color and Protection at “A Century of Progress.” Chicago (American Asphalt Paint Co.)  1933. [45366] Celebrated architect, interior decorator, exhibition designer, illustrator and color theorist Joseph Urban (1872-1933) went out on a high note.  His final project, a commission to oversee an inventive color scheme for The Rainbow [...]

George Barbier & the Great War

Thumbnail image for George Barbier & the Great War December 1, 2009

Barbier, George, & Jules Meynial.  La Guirlande des Mois.   Anées 1-5 (1917-1921) (all published).  Paris (Meynial) 1917-1921. [45546] Renowned illustrator, costume designer and Art Deco stylist George Barbier was 32 in 1914 when war broke out in Europe.  Although little is known about his personal biography, it stands to reason that he would have been [...]