The part played by various enterprising and ideally minded publishing houses in fostering and stimulating that pleasure in beautiful books and their acquisition which has increased to such an extraordinary degree in Germany during the past decade must not go unrecorded here. Among these the firm of Eugen Diederichs, of Jena, claims primary consideration because of the ungrudging spirit in which it has afforded to all who have made a name in the sphere of artistic book-production an opportunity of displaying their ideas and skill. This firm caters for all the manifold cultural tendencies of our age, and its publications being of a serious character, the collaboration of these artists has been in the main restricted to wrappers and bindings, title-pages, initials, ornamental borders, and other decorative details. On the other hand, there are houses, such as that of Georg Müller in Munich, which besides good decoration go in largely for book illustration, in which also numerous and interesting developments have taken place, including a revival of various processes—such as wood-engraving, lithography, and etching—that had fallen largely into disuse, but now once more enjoy considerable favour for the purpose of book illustration. The Insel-Verlag of Leipzig, S. Fischer of Berlin, Paul and Bruno Cassirer of Berlin, Kurt Wolff of Leipzig, and many others, have helped materially in this reflorescence of German illustrative art. But at the same time, there are more than a few who hold that a well-printed book with unimpeachable letterpress, paper and binding requires neither decoration nor illustration, and that its intrinsic merit depends on the perfect manner in which the technical work is carried out. Thus the celebrated editions of the Hyperion Press and the splendid issues of the Century Press of the Munich publishing firm of Hans von Weber are brilliant examples of German typography; nor need the publications of the Janus Press of Leipzig, produced with consummate technical care under the supervision of Walter Tiemann and Carl Ernst Poeschel, fear comparison with the books that issue from the private presses of England. These volumes are only printed in small
TITLE-PAGE DESIGNED BY PROF. PAUL LANG-KURZ editions of one hundred and fifty to two hundred copies, and satisfy the utmost demands of discriminating bibliophiles. Of distinction on account of their typically German character are the “Rudolfinische Drucke,” brought out by Rudolf Koch in association with Rudolf Gerstung at Offenbach, and published by Wilhelm Gerstung. In these books, which are also genuinely German in their contents, everything is expressly avoided which in any way deviates from the considerations of chief importance—proper spacing of the letters and the well-balanced composition of the page of letterpress in Koch's essentially German fount, together with uniform excellence of workmanship throughout. Thus only the title-pages are specially designed, and the body of the letterpress is but sparingly relieved with the imposing initials belonging to this fount; but the bindings, with their cover-papers cut and printed by the artist himself, also bear witness to the virile beauty of his art. Of a more arresting and luxurious character are the productions of the Ernst Ludwig Press of the Grand Duke of Hesse, the artistic supervision of which has been entrusted to F. W. Kleukens; and the costly editions de luxe of the Pan-Press of Berlin, which are embellished with lithographs by Slevogt, Corinth and Pascin, or etchings by Geiger or Walser. Such productions, however, are beyond the scope of this work.
What Germany is now able to offer in the art of book production is superabundantly shown in the International Exhibition which is being held this year at Leipzig. That after barely a score of years we should have seriously ventured to invite the civilised races to peaceful competition in this special domain is a proof that we are conscious of the value of our work, and do not fear the verdict of the world.
ORNAMENT DESIGNED BY PROF. F. W. KLEUKENS, FOR D. STEMPEL, FRANKFURT A.M.
THE “ANTIQUA” TYPE. DESIGNED BY PROF. PETER BEHRENS CAST BY GEBR. KLINGSPOR, OFFENBACH A.M.