Saturday, June 27, 2015

W. Collin, Leipzigerstr 19

In my earlier Colliniana post I shared the image below by Waldemar Titzenthaler, 1909, of the W. Collin "showroom" at Leipzigerstr 19 between 1893 and 1913. Stadtbild Deutschland and its Berlin in Alten Bildern forum was also an amazing resource in finding the image.

In meinem letzten Colliniana Bericht zeigte ich das Bild unten vom dem (vermutlichen) Schaufenster der Firma W. Collin in der Leipzigerstr 19 aufgenommen von Waldemar Titzenthaler, 1909. Stadtbild Deutschland und das dortige Berlin in Alten Bildern forum waren auch eine unheimlich Quelle in der Suche nach Bildern.

Click on image for large version and then look at top right corner to see W. Collin, Kgl Hof Buchbinder
Auf Bild klicken für die Großansicht, dann oben rechts das W. Collin, Kgl Hof Buchbinder

A similar view can also be found in Berliner Architekturwelt,1913, an architecture, art, and design journal during the arts and crafts era. Unfortunately, while the window signage is readable in the high-resolution PDF, it does not show in the screen image.

Eine ähnliche Aufnahme war auch in der Berliner Architekturwelt,1913, zu finden. Obwohl die Collin'she Fensterdekoration in der PDF ausmachbar ist, ist das leider nicht der Fall in kleineren Datei unten.


Click on image for large version.
Auf Bild klicken für die Großansicht.

Looking for more images I came across the site of the historical postcard sellers Bartko-Reher in Berlin. They had a great number of images of the building in a variety of styles, many derived from the same photograph. The area around the Leipziger Strasse was an important business district in Berlin, so the number of images was not a surprise. The first floor of Leipzigerstr 19 was the home to Kaffee Klose, a "hangout" of the "Bohemian" scene in Berlin. Among the postcards, two in which the window signage for W. Collin, Königlicher Hofbuchbinder, was visible.

Immer auf der Suche nach mehr Bildermaterial fand ich bei in Berlin die Postkarten unten. Von der Leipziger Straße gab es eine große Auswahl was nicht erstaunt da diese eine der bedeutendsten Einkaufsstraßen in Berlin war. Kaffee Klose, war auch ein Treffpunkt der Künstlerszene... Viele der Postkarten stammten vom selben Negative und wurden zum teil koloriert. Trotzdem, in Zwei konnte ich deutlich die Fensterdekoration von W. Collin sehen.

Postcard mailed 1898.
Click on image for large version.
Auf Bild klicken für die Großansicht.


Click on image for large version.
Auf Bild klicken für die Großansicht.

Finally for Leipzigerstr 19, in an image from 1953 and in Google Streetview. Just spin around Streetview in the the intersection, and you can see that the buildings across the street. The WMF store and other large building still stand. These are also visible in the Titzenthaler photo and the postcards.

Und zuletzt für die Leipzigerstr 19, in einer Luftaufnahme von 1953 und Google Streetview. Streetview einfach wenden damit man sehen kann. Das WMF Kaufhaus und der andere große Bau stehen großenteils noch. Diese sind auch in dem Titzenthaler Bild und den Postkarten zu sehen.






In 1914 the firm moved its "showroom" to Markgrafenstr 51, also the home of the Dresdener Bank in Berlin. The image is pre-1914.

Das "Schaufenster" zog dann 1914 in die Markgrafenstr 51 um, der Hauptsitz der Dresdner Bank in Berlin. Das Bild stammt aus der Zeit vor 1914.

Click on image for large version.
Auf Bild klicken für die Großansicht.

[Edit 12 July, 2015. Added aerial image and Streetview]

Friday, June 19, 2015

Fritz and Trudi Eberhardt - An Oral History

Don Rash and his Boss Dog Press have been publishing a series of titles in the series of Eberhardtiana, the first was 2003's Rules for Bookbinders, now sold out. The most recent is Three Lectures, a compilation of three lectures given by Fritz Eberhardt.

Cover of GBW Journal showing tooling by Fritz Eberhardt

The Guild of Book Workers has just released what I hope is the first set of many digitized sets of their Journal. The oral history of the Eberhardts conducted by Valerie Metzler, and they discussed their life, their training, their time in the United States, and much more. It can be found in Volume 37, Number 2, 2002 and downloaded. Very much worth reading.

Fritz Eberhardt was born in Silesia (originally part of Germany; now part of Poland) in 1917, he suffered from polio at an early age, which resulted in a permanent limp. After an apprenticeship he studied bookbinding formally under Ignatz Wiemeler at the Leipzig Academy for Graphic Arts, and calligraphy under the prodigy Rudo Spemann, and later, in Offenbach, with Hermann Zapf. Following the end of the war, he walked out of the Russian occupied zone and into West Germany. There he met his future wife, Trudi Luffert, who was also a binder. In the early 1950s the Eberhardts came to Philadelphia, where he was employed by the Library Company. Within a few years they were able to move to the farm on Old Sumneytown Pike where they would cement their reputations as two of the finest American hand binders. In addition to his binding work, Eberhardt was internationally recognized for his calligraphy. Until his death in 1998, he was a continuing voice for the artistic and cultural value of bookbinding and book works, from his early dealings with the Philadelphia book world through the debates on standards and the beginnings of institutional book arts instruction, as well as a proponent of a more professional approach for our book arts organizations. Don Rash was among his most accomplished students.


Depicted is his binding on Felix Timmermans, Pieter Bruegel, 1950, featuring his signature hand-cut finishing tools. [From the Guild of Book Workers 100th Anniversary Exhibition Retrospective]

Here a link to his obituary from the Abbey Newsletter at CoOL.