Jahrbuch der Einbandkunst 2

Back in April of 2012 I shared this binding from my reference library, one of those books that changes how you approach your field and the history of it. Below a snippet from that blog post...

The copy above, bound by/in the firm of E.A. Enders (Leipzig) is from my collection. I remember being blown away by it on many levels when it was brought into Bill Minter's shop by a dealer who wanted to have a nice clamshell box made for it. Much to Bill's chagrin, the book was sold on the spot (for what was then a lot of money) with a box made shortly thereafter in my own then modest studio. I very quickly found myself sucked into the essays, especially the ones on contemporary binding. It was my first (and really only) design binding purchase and I still love to study the design, the combination of decor, the typographic elements - Germans integrated the title into designs more so than other traditions - and also the little flaws that make it "human."

Yesterday another one of my orders arrived from Germany, this time from Antiquariat Peter Ibbetson, the kind of order one needs to sign for, so glad it was Saturday... Among them was book that I had dawdled over ordering, Musterbetriebe deutscher Wirtschaft: Die Großbuchbinderei E.A. Enders, Leipzig - München from 1929. Translated, "Model Businesses of German Industry," the introduction challenges the reader to learn about German model businesses, pointing out the deluge of publications by and about American model industries, and that these are better known than the "native" German ones... This one is number 6 in the series, here the WorldCat record..

Although part of a series, this book is very similar to the many other publications by binderies such as Extra Binding at the Lakeside Press (R.R. Donnelley and Sons Company, 1925), or Ernst Collins' essays "Fünfzig Jahre deutscher Verlegereinband, 1875 - 1925" in Festschrift Hübel & Denck (Leipzig: Hübel & Denck, 1925) or "Vom guten Geschmack und von der Kunstbuchbinderei" in Spamersche Buchbinderei (Leipzig: Spamer, 1914). These publications tend to give a history of the book and the bindery, highlighting the functional areas with illustrations of the workspaces and the bindings produced in them.

So in reading/leafing through the book I get to page 39 (Sonderabteilung für Handeinbände, Extra Binding Department) and what do I find??? Look familiar? Unfortunately, the 6 pages of that section don't provide any details about the binding, although other bindings mentioned are described as exemplars of the materials and techniques applied in this kind of work.

I also found it in the Archiv für Buchbinderei, 1928

Oh, so very glad I grabbed it...