A Torch for Printing

A young Albert Maertens of Seattle made this book on The History of Printing for Miss Levine's class assignment in 1930. I found this treasure sitting atop an assorted pile of tools and junk in a scary basement of an 1891 house in the Georgetown neighborhood. It was an estate sale which brought me there just a few days after Christmas, and it was advertised as the oldest house in Georgetown. Visiting just before closing time was a bit of a lark as I recall, but I was curious to see the oldest house there. The book was my only purchase; for $10 I think. Now I'm not a big believer in fate or destiny, but finding this little book was a great delight. I felt it belonged in my hands (for now) and I would give it safe-keeping.

So thoughtful of Albert to take note of Gothic lettering (also known as Blackletter). He reminds us "We see them on Christmas." 

As a former teacher of typography and book design, I was pleased to see that young Albert followed instructions well and included the correct sequence of pages for his frontmatter; a Title Page, followed by his endearing Dedication page and then Table of Contents. Although he wasn't the best speller, his handlettering fittingly resembles a roman text font of the day, and he did manage to capture the spirit of initial caps by applying a box around each first letter of a sentence. All four of the tipped-on watercolor (and one pen and ink) illustrations are charming, as is the crafty cover design of cut paper letters, a small book and two curious little torches. The book itself measures approximately 5.5 x 7.5 inches, has three sewn signatures and is bound with construction paper wrapped boards and endsheets. Perhaps my favorite thing about young Albert's book however is the last page entitled I am the Printing Press by Robert Daves (Davis). It is an abbreviated version of an early 1900s advertisement written by Robert Davis to promote the Hoe printing press.
     My curiousity about Albert Maertens' life led me only to some general online records. He died in Seattle in 2007 at the age of 91. This would have placed him at the age of 13 or 14 when he made this book, and it must have been very meaningful as he kept it all of those many years. On Friday I will feature another child's handmade book from this same era which is a perfect companion to this book on printing. It is on the topic of paper.

The Tax Man

So it's tax day in the States today and I'm feeling a bit like a squeezed lemon. I wish the IRS could at least have a heart to send me some nice revenue stamps like these just for the occasion. 

The first cigar revenue tax stamp was issued in 1863 and continued to be issued until 1956 when the law changed to allow cigar makers to pay their taxes by making returns directly to the IRS. This lovely engraved IRS stamp above was issued in 1878 as proof of tax paid on cigars. It is designed to wrap entirely around a cigar box, and measures 1.5 x 16 inches long. I photographed it in sections in order to show the stunning detail of the engraver's artwork.
     The Dalley's Magical Pain Extractor revenue stamp below was seen on eBay last August from this dealer. I suspect the IRS saw no irony in extracting this painful tax from the pain extractor. 

Medicine tax stamp for the J.C. Ayer & Co. Undated. Found here. The old cigar revenue stamps below are from Vintage Me O My, where you can see even more of them. Wouldn't it be nice if IRS stood for Interesting Revenue Stamp rather than the Internal Revenue Service?

This revenue stamp was likely issued during the Civil War. Due to the high cost of financing the war effort, Congress passed a law to tax photographers at that time.

And DO NOT, under any circumstances remove this bedding tag from here under penalty of law or you will have to answer to the State of South Carolina who issued this bedding tax stamp. 

Under the Big Top

Yes, it's a tent dealer sale today under the Big Top, but I'm just window-shopping as the prices are just as BIG. These two 4 foot tall, handcarved wood blocks of a circus scene c. 1930s-40s caught my eye here. They are unusually nice and rarely do you find such beautiful wood print blocks as these for sale unless they go up for auction. They really belong in a printing museum rather than on someone's wall. The primary and secondary plates intended for a two-color letterpress poster are originally from the Neal Walters Poster Company in Bentonville, Arkansas. Predictably, the wonderful circus scene of animals, arial artists and circus clowns surrounding the nice type layout is unsigned, but both blocks appear to be in nice condition. "150 Circus Artists and Performers From All Parts of The World. Double Giant Menagerie From Five Continents. 5000 Seats 500,000 Invested." The only thing more frightening than the clowns is the price of $5500 for the matching set. Window-shopping is always free here. View the flipped images of these two enormous woodcut blocks at bottom of post.  

Fans of Communication

Texting is nothing new. It may seem inconceivable, but it first originated in the late 18th century with the use of a simple folding fan. When the fan was first introduced to Europe by way of trade routes from Asia in the second half of the 16th century, it quickly became a fashion accessory and was regarded as a symbol of status and wealth. By the late 17th century, France became the folding fan center of the world and the French royalty would commission richly decorated examples with handpainted paper and carved blades. The mistress of Louis XV was said to have a fan that cost $30,000 and took nine years to make. It had intricately cut paper imitating lace and contained ten miniature paintings.
     Folding fans were not only designed for generating a cool breeze, but they were also regarded as disciplined communication devices. For example, the Ladies Telegraph fan displayed above, is regarded as a conversation fan. It was designed in 1798 for conversing across a room by pulling tabs denoting letters. Words and sentences could be spelled with the aid of a color chart and engraved instructions on the back of the fan. Over time, an entire "fan etiquette" evolved with subtle hand gestures to signal certain intentions to a familiar suitor. It really was the cell phone of the 17th century. 

The Fanology, or Ladies Conversation Fan, was invented by Mr. Charles Francis Badini in 1797. It enabled conversation within close range via semaphore. By holding the fan in a certain position, a letter of the alphabet would be indicated and whole words and sentences could be spelled out. Engraved on the back were "texting" shortcuts for familiar Q and As. Below is a paper fan from 1796 portraying a view of the Telegraph system using open and closed shutters for each specific letter of the alphabet. 

In the early 20th century folding fans became a tool for advertising. This one from 1910 was promoting Champagne Dry Monopole from Paris. Below is an earlier fan from 1900 advertising Crosfields' "Fan" White Soap. Both are printed chromoliths. 

Parisian chocolatier Marquise de Sevigne issued this handcolored litho folding fan in 1900. Below is another paper folding fan explaining rules of the various card games of the day. It is also engraved and hand-colored.    

All of these fans originally appeared in the December 2012 Dominic Winter auction catalog and were part of a much larger collection.

Smoke Gets in Your Eyes

 

In honor of the sixth season opener of MadMen tonight, Letterology is taking a slight detour to the smoking lounge for a look at some nicely designed 20th century cigarette packaging. The examples featured here all vary tremendously in style and age from 1912 to the 1980s. However my particular favorite design of the bunch is the Palette cigarettes from the 1960s, designed in Switzerland. The different color cigarettes inside the box, wrapped with their gold-tipped Orientales Filtres and imprinted with the word Palette; also in gold, were like incredibly beautiful paper candy. I suspect these colorful cigarettes were probably far more alluring to women than men in the 1960s. 
     Meanwhile, the US tobacco company Philip Morris, decided they would target young professional women and introduced the Virginia Slims cigarette in 1968 with the campaign slogan, "You've come a long way, baby", attempting to link women's liberation and empowerment to smoking. These cigarettes were designed to be longer and narrower than most, and said to be "tailored for the feminine hand." Unfortunately, they were wildly successful and gave rise to many more women smokers including young teenage girls. Nearly fifty years later now, the smoke is happily clearing as the number of smokers steadily decline. As we become wise to Madison Avenues' ways, their messages grow weaker. We realize that no matter how beautiful or beguiling the package design, the product is not always a public health benefit. Yes, we have indeed come a very long way, yet we still have a long way to go! 
:: All images are from the Zigsam Austrian cigarette collection containing nearly 20,000 packages from 153 countries.  

Severnye hard pack from the Ukraine, 1980s.

Charros soft pack from Mexico, 1940s.

Armiro in box from Finland, 1959.

Armiro in soft pack from Finland, 1976.

Snowflake soft pack from Denmark, 1950s. 

Spagnolette Orientali sliding box from Italy, 1912.

Campeones soft pack from Mexico, 1920s.

Skior snap lid box from Bulgaria, 1943.

Sport Ekstra soft pack from Poland, 1977.

Sport snap lid box from Slovenia, 1950s.

Sport snap lid box from Germany, 1938.

Faros soft pack front and side, from Mexico 1960s.

Bosco Superieur soft pack from Germany, 1947.

Carré hard pack from East Germany, early 1960s.

Carioca soft pack from Finland, 1948.

Soltani sliding box from Iran, 1960s.

Bastos soft pack from France, late 1970s.