Just received this lovely tunnel book, 500 Jahre Buchdruckerkunst, 1440 - 1940, that was issued by the Bauersche Gießerei (Bauer Type Foundry) in Frankfurt. It was created by the illustrator Fritz Kredel. Kredel was helped out of Germany by Melbert Cary in 1938. RIT's Cary Graphic Arts Collection was endowed by the Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust as a memorial to Mr. Cary, together with funds to support the use and growth of the collection. As they don't seem to have a copy, it seems only fitting to gift it to them.
For a while it seemed the little gem was lost. But no, the journey from the antiquarian dealer in Madgeburg to Syracuse took 3 months and the item dropped out of postal tracking systems after 2 months, only to reappear the day before it arrived. Who knows where it languished, Frankfurt airport, New York?!?
Here Fritz Otto helps me set it up for these pictures by holding on to the far end.
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| Fritz Otto holding the far end... |
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| Side view showing the panels. The accordion folds are at the top and bottom. |
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| Shall we peek inside? |
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| Oh look, a print shop. Type casting at front, right; type setting at front left; printing in the middle, note the sheets hanging above, so the ink can dry; and in the way back inspecting the final product. |
As this is a German print shop, the paper will in all likelihood be unsized at this stage. As described in Prediger's Der Buchbinder und Futteralmacher (1741), the binder will size and beat the paper with a specially shaped heavy hammer before binding. Jeff Peachey describes this process in detail on his blog.
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