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

“What should I talk about? The art of entertainment” is a manual for conducting a conversation, written by Helene Stökl (1845–1929) under her pen name, Constanze von Franken. First published in 1894 by Levy & Müller in Stuttgart, with the second edition following in 1896, this is the third edition, probably from around 1898.

The title page is a smorgasbord of German blackletter typefaces from the late 19th century. In order of appearance, these are: Enge verzierte Altdeutsch (“Wovon soll ich reden?”), Antike Kanzlei (“Die Kunst der Unterhaltung”), Halbfette Schwabacher (“Ein praktisches Handbuch”), Gutenberg-Gotisch (“mit Anleitungen, Musterbeispielen (Zwiegespräche u.s.w.) für die verschiedensten Anlässe und Vorkommnisse im modernen gesellschaftlichen Leben und Verkehr, für Damen und Herren.”), Neue Schwabacher (“Nebst einem Anhang”), and Schmale Akzidenz-Gotisch (“Hundert Gesellschaftsspiele, fünfzig Pfänderauslösungen”). “Constanze von Franken” is set in the halbfett weight of Gutenberg-Gotisch. The two lines below are in Neue Schwabacher again, and “Stuttgart” shows more of the Halbfette Schwabacher.

Several of the fonts were produced by the local Bauer & Co – which was acquired by Berthold on this day in 1898.

Levy & Müller was founded in 1871 by Maximilian Levy and Wilhelm Müller. In the first four decades of the 20th century, it was one of the leading publishers of books for young people in the German-speaking world. The publishing house was renamed Herold-Verlag in 1933. Due to their Jewish roots, the owners were forced to sell it in 1936. They managed to flee to the United States in 1938 – the year of the Nazi pogroms on 9–10 November – and 1941, respectively.

Cover with art by Stuttgart-based artist Peter Schnorr (1862–1912). The lettering is custom drawn. The ocher letterforms are similar to the Artistik typeface (Bauer & Co./Berthold, 1898). Schnorr also worked on typefaces released by Berthold, see his Augsburger Schrift (1901).

This undated German translation of Les Trois Mousquetaires (The Three Musketeers) was published by Karl Prochaska in Teschen, Austria (today: Cieszyn/Těšín), in a series titled “Die besten Romane der Weltliteratur” (“The best novels in world literature”).

The series title on the top of the title page pairs Heinz König’s Renaissance-Fraktur (1885) with initials from Friedrich W. Bauer’s Renaissance-Kanzlei (1883). “Die drei Musketiere” is presented in a lighter typeface, likewise with flourished capitals: Antike Kanzlei (1882) was designed in-house at Flinsch and cut by William Kirkwood. The name of Alexander [sic!] Dumas uses Original-Gotisch or similar. The smaller text including the caption of the frontispiece is set in a Normal-Fraktur.

“Die besten Romane der Weltliteratur” on the cover appears to be a (custom-made?) open variant of Renaissance-Fraktur. The author’s name here is set in Albert Anklam’s Neue Schwabacher (1876).

A full-page ad in a German publication from 1901, singing the praises of sugar:

Enjoy sugar, not only because it increases the pleasant taste, but rather because it is a valuable food and at the same time cheaper than other nutrients such as fat and protein.

The middle part details how to enjoy sugar: in tea and coffee, in all milk and water soups, in all hard to digest vegetables and salads, on bread (in the form of jam, as cheap substitute for butter), in the form of preserved fruits, and, for breastfeeding women, in malt beer.

The bottom part addresses “smart mothers” and “smart housewives”. The former are asked not to deprive their children of sugar:

It is a wise institution of nature that children crave sweet foods and drinks; it is as if they know it that they cannot thrive without sugar.

The headline features Renaissance-Fraktur with an ß (eszett), a compact ck ligature, and a swashy r at the end. While the text directly below uses an Alte Schwabacher (starring umlauts with superscript e’s), all smaller text is set in a Neue Schwabacher, with a bold weight used for emphasis. The heading next to the numbered list combines this bold Neue Schwabacher with a question mark from Gloria schmal halbfett.

“Zucker / Zucker / Zucker” and the triple-underlined “Kluge Mütter / Kluge Hausfrauen” are set in Stempel’s Morris-Gotisch. This adaptation of Morris Troy is distinguished from William Morris’s original – as well as from other German releases under the same name including those by Berthold and Ludwig & Mayer – by a different g. It also sports an uncial-like M which might be unique to the Stempel version.

Die deutsche Dichtung der Gegenwart: Die Alten und die Jungen (“Contemporary German Poetry: The Old and the Young”) is a book first published in 1897. This is the “third, improved edition” published by Eduard Avenarius, Leipzig in 1900. It was written by Adolf Bartels (1862–1945), whose history of German literature –

was marked by racist evaluations and rabid antisemitism; it became a pioneering work for National Socialist literary reviews. According to Bartels, even authors whose names sounded Jewish, who wrote for the “Jewish press”, or who were friendly with Jews were “contaminated with Jewishness”. The noblest task of völkisch cultural policy would therefore be a radical de-Jewing of the arts, and thus the “salvation of National Socialist Germany”.

The cover design doesn’t give away the vile antisemitism of the content. It looks like many other German books published in this period, featuring the typical elements of the Jugendstil period, with borders and ornaments, depicting owls (symbolizing wisdom) and flowers. The typeface is one of the many German copies of Bradley, originally designed by Herman Ihlenburg based on lettering by Will H. Bradley and produced by ATF in 1895. Several foundries in German-speaking countries named their version Amerikanische Altgotisch (“American Old Gothic”), acknowledging the design’s geographic origin. Others including Berthold in Berlin and Haas in Switzerland dropped the adjective and simply called it Altgotisch. Here it’s shown embossed in gold, with a period after each line, and dots to justify shorter ones. The publisher’s credit is set with descending capitals.

The title page exhibits the uncoordinated mix of typefaces from various blackletter subgenres that was so common in Germany in the late 19th and early 20th century (and detested by the Modernists). The largest line is in an unidentified compressed gotisch with ornamented initials. “Die” is in (a) Neue Schwabacher, “Die Alten und die Jungen” in a generic gotisch similar to Original-Gotisch or Courante Gotisch. The typeface chosen for the author’s name is similar to Bismarck-Gotisch. “Dritte verbesserte Auflage” uses a Fette Gotisch, and the publisher’s name is in a Normal-Fraktur.