Among the new “Fraktur” or German Gothic types mention should first of all be made of that known as “Weiss-Fraktur,” which, designed by E. R. Weiss, has been perfected by him after many years of untiring collaboration with the Type Foundry of Bauer and Co. It has remained a purely German type, but is without the flourishes bequeathed by the old German Gothic. The light and open appearance of matter composed with it imparts to it a clarity which is distinctly agreeable, so that one can follow it with ease and comfort while deriving quiet pleasure from the simplicity and definiteness of a type which satisfies in equal degree the requirements of use and æsthetic susceptibility. The Tempel Verlag, in common with a number of other important German publishing houses, has adopted the “Weiss-Fraktur” for its model editions of German classics.
When new desires call for satisfaction and new forms begin to develop, it is always those spheres of activity which offer easy and pleasant possibilities of accomplishment that are selected for experimenting. Thus some fifteen years ago the designing of book-bindings was a favourite occupation of the artists who interested themselves in the reform of industrial art, and many who have now attained to clear and definite ideas do not want to be reminded of the sort of work that was done in those days. Under the influence of Van de Velde's precept that every line is a force, the wrappers and bindings of books were among the things that were covered with a nervous labyrinth of lines which was expressive only of an attitude of mind radically at variance with all that had gone before. But many who at first occupied themselves with this kind of work in a more or less dilettante spirit, have by quiet, serious labour and steady development mastered its problems and have come to devote themselves almost exclusively to the graphic arts and the industry of book production, so that we now possess an important organisation of the workers in this field—the “Verein deutscher Buchgewerbekünstler” —whose collective exhibition at the International Exhibition now being held at Leipzig is one of the most interesting sections of this great display. Of the artists whose work is represented among the accompanying illustrations, Cissarz, Ehmcke, Kleukens, Köster, Koch, Renner, Steiner-Prag, Tiemann, Weiss and Wieynk belong to this group.
Johann Vincenz Cissarz had in 1900 already advanced to such prominence in this branch of work that the artistic arrangement of the German Typographical Section at the Paris Universal Exhibition was entrusted to him. A long way behind as this catalogue now is, it was nevertheless at that date an exemplary achievement as regards type, ornament, printing, and binding; and to the large number of commissions it brought the artist may be due the fact that thereafter his chief attention was bestowed on the art of the book, in spite of his penchant and decided genius for painting of a decorative and even monumental character and his particular partiality for the etching-needle. From Dresden Cissarz migrated, first to Darmstadt and then to Stuttgart, where as teacher at the Royal School of Applied Art he found a welcome opportunity of communicating to others his own sound principles in regard to the internal and external arrangement of books, and already he is able to look back upon a teaching career which has been very successful. And here, too, many grateful tasks have fallen to him, not only in connection with special events, such as jubilees, presentation addresses, and such things, but more especially in the course of work undertaken for the publishing houses of Stuttgart. Though the luxurious binding executed by hand in costly materials may be superior in an artistic sense, yet from the economic and cultural point of view the tastefully designed bindings produced in large quantities by the publishing houses are of greater importance. A series of these publishers' cases of diverse design is illustrated on pages 168 and 172, and it shows how successfully the designer has utilised the space to display his boldly lettered title or to cover the whole field with becoming ornament.
Hugo Steiner-Prag, who first became known through his poetic drawings for children's fairy tales and books of verses, has also for some years past taught at the Royal Academy of Graphic Arts at Leipzig. His chief successes have been won as an illustrator, but from the bindings now reproduced (pp. 166 and 167) it will be seen that he has a marked talent for the embellishment of the book. By means of simple lines and decorative ornament, usually confined to a well-proportioned centre field, he achieves really charming effects.
Karl Köster was at one time a pupil of Peter Behrens, and in order to be able to take advantage of all the possibilities open to the bookbinder he has not shrunk from learning the craft in the regular way. Thus in the course of his work he has not been wholly concerned with the external embellishment of the book, which he always endeavours to harmonise with its contents, but has also kept in view the practical purpose of the binding as a protective covering for the book. His great skill in achieving delightful effects with the simplest means is amply demonstrated by the numerous bindings he has designed for publishers. Thus in the bindings here illustrated, “Heimkehr” and “Buch Joram” (p. 169), three lines of lettering suffice to animate and decorate the entire surface; but he is quite capable of employing much richer decorative devices with discretion and good taste. From the way in which he has placed a simple cross of violet leather in the richly ornamented middle field of his red missal binding (p. 163), to show to the greatest advantage the colour of the amethysts set in the silver mounts, it may be inferred that he is capable of producing new and peculiar arrangements of form and colour without breaking with the best traditions. In his second missal binding the form of the cross which dominates the entire space is distributed over twelve circular panels or fields, of which the middlemost is worked with a white leather inlay and gold-tooling. The other circles are lined with violet leather, and with the four amethysts of the corner rosettes, the sea-green morocco, and the rich gilding, produce a splendid effect of colour.
Among the professional craftsmen who yielded to the new ideas of book production Paul Kersten is perhaps the best known, as he is without doubt the most successful. With an extensive practical experience, which has mastered all the technical possibilities, he combines artistic susceptibility and a literary aptitude which has enabled him to uphold the objects he has at heart in thoughtfully written essays and books. As head of the Technical School for Bookbinders in Berlin he is in a position to exercise an educative influence in the best sense. The bindings illustrated on pages 164 and 165 enable one to judge of his technical versatility and his methods of decoration, which are not restricted to a particular scheme. They are without exception leather bindings in which the title is placed independently on the back or within a panel left for it, the ornamentation of the cover being therefore uninfluenced by it. In bindings of a richer character he is very fond of utilising a diversity of colours for the sake of the animating effect. Thus in his dark-blue morocco binding, whose centre panel is occupied by five hexagons within circles, the flowers displayed therein are of red, green, and violet leather; while in the chamois binding of Baudelaire's “Fleurs du Mal,” for the ornamentation of which, in gold and blind stamping, no fewer than 18,000 impressions were required, leather overlays in seven different colours were used. But even with such an abundance of decoration one is not conscious of any excess, but only perhaps that agreeable sense of assurance which the practised hand communicates. Three colours, black, red and blue, are employed for ornamenting the calf-binding with a circular centre panel, the decoration of which is carried out by a special process of tooling and staining.
Of a much simpler character is the work of Franz Weisse, who likewise has come from the ranks of the handicraftsmen, and is now engaged as teacher at the School of Applied Art in Hamburg. The simple but bold stamping in which the decoration of his pigskin binding (p. 170) is executed comports well with the outspoken candour of Grimmelshausen's “Simplicissimus.” A feature of interest is the use of the “batik” process[A] for producing floral ornament spread over the sides and back of the parchment binding.
[A] Batik is a process of producing patterns by means of dyes and resists; it has long been in use in the Dutch East Indies, whence it was introduced into Holland, and now has a considerable vogue both there and in Germany, Austria and Hungary.
Again, in the richly decorated bindings of F. A. Demeter (pp. 161 and 162) one observes the sure hand of the experienced practitioner who knows how to take advantage of the beauties of material and technique in the fulfilment of his artistic aims. His ornamentation is certainly not quite original, but is distinguished by a clever decorative treatment of floral motives and a tasteful application of them; and even when he completely covers the back and sides with decoration of a uniform character, one does not feel that it is overdone. A beautiful example of his work is the binding with a design of leafage in gold on a reseda-green leather. Demeter also is a professional binder, and at present is head of the applied art department of the Hübel and Denck wholesale bindery at Leipzig. Even these large industrial concerns, equipped for the wholesale production of cheap bindings, have been obliged to take account of the growing desire for books that have an artistic value, and to attach to their establishments special departments in which, under the supervision of artistically minded craftsmen, not only simple bindings in “boards,” but also the costly and elaborate kinds of binding requiring most careful hand-work, are prepared.
One of the most individual of the German artists who have devoted themselves to the modern art of the book is Emil Preetorius. He is a born illustrator, and has mastered all the various means of expression in equal degree; even in the very concise outline of the silhouette he achieves an abundance of characterisation and vitality. The silhouettes shown here (p. 160) are from a popular edition of Daudet's “Tartarin de Tarascon,” which he has embellished and illustrated with refined artistic feeling; they figure there merely as the decorative headpieces to certain of the chapters, and serve as a jocose premonition of what is to follow. They are not the actual illustrations of the book, but they certainly afford an excellent idea of the happy way in which with these queer little black figures he has caught the grotesque comicality of this strange adventure. He is also fond of giving the reader in his title-pages a foretaste of what awaits him, of expressing graphically, in drawings often containing a number of figures, the contents and spirit of the books in which they appear. His figures are mostly those of people who lived in the “Biedermeier” age; they have a distinctly old-fashioned look about them, but none of that sentimental “gush” which so often makes the so-called “Stimmung” pictures of that period unpalatable to us moderns. While having a decided partiality for the peculiarities and foibles of the “Biedermeier” folk, Preetorius is thoroughly modern in feeling; his drawings are austere rather than sweetly sentimental, and even their æsthetic defects are pertinent to his art.