Jan Tschichold’s letterhead, 1956
I was surprised to see that in the mid-1950s, Jan Tschichold used Alte Schwabacher as the typeface for his personal letterhead. This letter from October 1956 is addressed to Rudolf Hostettler. The year before, Tschichold moved back to Basel to work for Hoffmann-La Roche.
It is not the cut by Benjamin Krebs Nachfahren – the figures don’t match. None of the digitally available Alte Schwabachers is a match either, as far as I can tell. The only digital versions with old-style figures are IHOF’s distressed SchwarzKopf and RMU’s Schwabacher, but they are very different.
Spotted in the exhibition Einige von Hand geschriebene Briefe (“Several letters written by hand”), with a selection from Jost Hochuli’s private collection of c. 400 letters, including items sent from and to Walter Käch, Paul Standard, Gerrit Noordzij and several others. On display during Tÿpo St. Gallen 2013 (see the invitation as pdf).
2 Comments on “Jan Tschichold’s letterhead, 1956”
One might assume that this is Nürnberger Schwabacher (Haas, 1927), but the ‘W’ and also the figures are different.
Tschichold included a Schwabacher in the second volume of his Gute Schriftformen from 1942. It’s not identified further, but described as the probably oldest original cut still in existence, probably from the 17th century. Alas, it’s not a match for the version used on his letterhead either.