Typography

Because I am a page designer for the school paper, typography is something that I enjoy. A well-designed page for me is all about the type.  So needless to say, I was excited about this blog.

The type for my book is blackletter.  Blackletter is often referred to as Old English or gothic.  The Gutenburg Bible was printed with blackletter. 

A sample of the type from the prayer book.  

It was used in Germany until the 1920s, when sans serif fonts became more popular. In 1933 Hitler declared the new typography un-German and Fraktur to be the people's font. The Nazi's continued to use this font until 1941 when the Nazi's banned its use, citing its "Jewish origins." (Heller)

Sample of Fraktur

Blackletter is characterized by tight spacing and condensed lettering.  Condensing the lines and letter spacing reduced the cost of book production by cutting the amount of materials needed. (Graphic)

Blackletter is not used much today because it is hard to read.  The font is not as hard to read in my book, because of the small amount of text. Imagine if this font was used in commercial books today.  Would you like to read Harry Potter or  your favorite paperback in this font?

You can see blackletter today in the New York Times masthead, on a bottle of Corona, or, my personal favorite, at the entrance of Disneyland.

"The text of the book is the thing for which everything else exists." -W.A. Dwiggins, The Structure of the Book 

Works Cited
Graphic Design History. Blackletter/Gothic Lettering. N.p., 2011. Web. 24 Feb. 2014.
Heller, Steven. The meaning of type. Eye Magazine, 2003. Web. 24 Feb. 2014.

More History than Expected

Paper

In the town where I grew up, there was a paper mill.  It doesn't produce as much now, mainly gets the paper shipped to them where they package it, but at the time when it was producing paper, it wasn't pretty.  It smelled and put a lot out into the air.  That is my one and only personal experience with paper making.

It's not something you think about when you pick up a book.  I can't say I've ever picked up a book and thought, "How did they make this?" But that has been my task this past week.  I needed to look at my little prayer book and think about the paper.

I wish you could really see and touch the paper.  I can't take a good enough picture to show you this time.  The pages are soft, except for the ones with the illustrations.  Those pages are thicker, but still smooth.  On the regular pages, you can see the fibers of the paper.  Where the illustrated pages are smooth and white, the regular pages have a grainy texture to them.

With an educated guess to the timeframe of when my book was printed and knowing the book was printed in Germany, led me on a discovery of papermaking history in Germany.

 The German papermakers contributed to the art of making paper by hand. The nomadic Germans travelled around both their own countries and Europe, sharing the secrets and terminology of paper making that was not written down or put in print. The papermakers eventually settled in small groups, teaching the craft at conventions attended by masters and companions. A companion, surprisingly, had the upper hand in the relationship of master and companion, being able to reprimand the master.  A companion was not allowed to work with a reprimanded master.

The craft of papermaking was strong in Germany at the end of the 16th century that Niklaus Durr, papermaker of Basel said, "No emperor nor king, nor prince, is able to resist the will of the German handcraft." (Dabrowski)

Central Europe then moved to paper mills and manufactured paper in that way.  Handmaking paper is now a thing of the past for the most part, other than in artist books, but never for commercial books.

Works Cited
Dąbrowski, Józef. Paper Manufacture in C entral and Eastern Europe Before the Introduction of Paper-making Machines. N.p., July 2008. Web. 17 Feb. 2014.

Forget-me-not

 Illustration

What good does illustration do in a prayer book?  The Bible, as it is currently printed, doesn't have illustrations.  The importance is the text.  Anything else just gets in the way of the word.  

However, in my Christian forget-me-not, the scripture is meant to be remembered.  As the months pass in the book, the flowers tell the story of the changing of the seasons.   It all ties together the forget-me-nots on the cover of the book and the overall meaning of the book.

There is no publishing date in this book, which means I can only guess as to how these illustrations were printed.  What I do know is the book was printed in Germany, the illustrations are on thicker paper and there is gold overlay on some of the illustrations. 

My educated guess is the illustrations were printed by the process of chromolithography.  Chromolithography is a way of making multi-colored prints.  Invented in the early 1800s, chromolithography was an easy way to get color to the masses.  

The Chicago Antiques Guide blog explains that in order to tell a chromolithograph from a color separation print, which is the "modern" process of printing, the dots are important. When magnified, the dots on a chromolithograph will resemble the stone the illustration is printed on, making the pattern irregular.

This close up of a cigar label from 1930 is a closely resembles the same dot pattern from the illustrations on my book.

Works Cited

Chicago Antiques. Chicago Antiques Blog. N.p., 16 Feb. 2012. Web. 11 Feb. 2014.

Provenance

Let's meet the Johnson family.

They are what really makes this book special.  In the beginning, I didn't know much about them, but I did know that Herb and Carl both married women named Tillie.  I knew when each was born and when they died.

There are a few different handwritings in this book.  The one in blue looks like my grandmothers and is predominant throughout.  The woman (I only assume woman) has found older entries in the book and written birth and death dates.

The best one is about Carl Johnson, as it details where he was when he died and his funeral.

I like to imagine the story goes that the book belonged to a grandmother, who brought it with her from Germany.  The daughter found it when she went through her mother's possessions and wanted to find out more about her family.  There is some subtraction of dates within the pages, and scratches out when the information changed.

Of course, I can only guess.

But I do know is the writing give the book provenance.  Provenance is basically the history of a books ownership.  Who owned the book affects the value.

While the Johnson's probably weren't famous or prominent, it makes it more interesting. But if this were the prayer book of a Danish prime minister, it would be valuable.

But searching for the Johnson's nonetheless is fun.  Carl was buried in Colton, South Dakota.  A quick search led me to "The Duroc Bulletin" where you can find Carl's name, along with other Johnson's. The bulletin is all about swine.  Who sold, who bought, what's best and what's not.  It is dated 1941.

Look a little farther, and I found the whole family.

Carl's mother came from Norway when she was 11 years old.  His father was born in Wisconsin, but his grandmother was from Norway as well.  

Carl farmed until the 1940s.  He married Tillie, but they had no children. By joining the site, I was able to look at photos.  Here's one of Carl and Herb.

I could look at this family's history all night long.  Finding this history, seeing Carl's gravestone and the pictures of his brothers and sisters also in my book, is so exciting.  Possibly the coolest thing I've ever had to do for a class.

My little book might have only cost $10 on e-bay, but the history with it is priceless.