Leipzig: Verlag Des Deutschen Buchgewerbevereins Zu Leipzig. One of the most beautiful periodicals ever published, Archiv für Buchgewerbe served the German bookmaking industry for many decades. Each issue contains articles on recent developments in technology, exhibitions devoted to the bookmaker’s arts, features about individuals in the field, and to our lasting benefit, numerous spectacular advertisements designed to show the current possibilities in papers, color printing, attachments, all of the latest techniques presented to impress the viewer. The journal appeared monthly with November and December usually combined in one thick special year-end issue. This group contains 107 non-consecutive issues from 1905 to 1916.
Sadly these magazines were formerly in Philadelphia’s Franklin Institute where they were carelessly stored under horrible conditions. The dry heat ruined many of the other rare books and journals in the Institute’s collection. As a result most of the paper covers on these are brittle and quite fragile and are detached from six or seven issues, which makes them inappropriate for library usage unless they were top be bound into volumes. However, the tipped-in plates are in very good condition and they are an invaluable resource for graphics designers, textile designers and material culture historians because the images may be scanned (I used a digital camera instead of a scanner for the images posted here.) without concern for damaging the bindings.
Fabric designs
Three different styles of advertisements for automobiles
1908 modern German interior design
Actual ticket to the 1904 Secession fashion ball
Uncut sheet of German postage stamps
