Learning About the Trades? Guides for "Children"

Lured into a rabbit hole, again, by a photo of a poster hanging in a toilet depicting bookbinding tools with German captions naming them. "Hey, just saw this, know anything about it and where it might be from? That's all it took for me to get sucked in ... So, did a Google Image search based on the image I was sent that led me to the source. The tools were only part of the story though; the other part was a depiction of a bookbinders workshop, the kind one finds when searching for images. Over the years, I had saved several, but not this one. But first, let's go back in time ... The image below from the Neues Bilderbuch für Kinder, published in Leipzig (1799) is very reminiscent of the illustrations in Diderot and others of the same time ... I have not been able to find a digitized source for the original publication.

Neues Bilderbuch für Kinder... Nouvelle galerie pour les enfans, contenant differens objets pris dans l'histoire naturelle, les sciences, les arts et métiers, dessinés fedèlement, avec une explication en quartre langues. Leipsic [sic]: Chés Fréédric Gotthelf Baumgaertner, n.d. [1799].
Found on Booktryst.

Interesting that it was publishd in four languages, but remember, at that time much of Europe (including Saxony and Leipzig) were ruled by France ...

Below one from 1847. Wissembourg on the border with "Germany".

From Tableau d'apres nature pour l'instruction de la jeunesse: 
30 ateliers de différents métiers, publiés par Fr. Wentzel. - Wissembourg 1847.
Bilder zum Anschauungs Unterricht für die Jugend, 
(Instructional Picture Books for the Youth)
The lithograph is by Jean Frédéric Wentzel (1807-1869).

Couldn't find the whole book online, just similar images ...

Here another similar one from Was willst du Werden; Bilder aus dem Handwerkerleben (What do you want to become; pictures of life in the trades) from 1880.

Another stylized workshop showing the tools of the trade and tasks.
View online here.

No additional context here, just 12 trades: Plumber, basket maker, mason, stone mason, shoemaker, barrel maker, bookbinder, metalworker, tanner, cabinet maker, baker, and carpenter.

What do these have in common? They all intended to teach children/young adults about some "important" trades, trades they might enter or interact with in life.

So, back to the image of tools I was sent and that led me down this rabbit hole ... That image came from Arbeitsstätten & Werkzeuge der wichtigsten Handwerker (Workshops and Tools of the Most Important Trades). Eßlingen, Verlag von J. F. Schreiber, 1875. This work appeared in several editions, the first [1835], and depicted 30 trades. Schreiber was, and still is known as a publisher of "educational" childrens books and paper-based models ... The 30 trades were: potters, sculptors and masons, farriers, nailsmiths, locksmiths, coppersmiths, plumbers, cutlers, tinsmiths, bell founders, blacksmiths, gold and silver smiths, carpenters, coopers, turners, butchers, bakers, ropers, soap makers, tanners, shoemakers, saddlers, brush makers, drapers, tailors, milliners, weavers, and bookbinders. The reduction in trades illustrated could be a direct result of the industrial revolution and its impacts.

Bookbinding from 30 Werkstätten von Handwerkern, 1840.
More here.

Schreiber also published the satirical paper, Meggendorfer Blättern that included the caricature that poked fun at the quality of bookbinding work ... (Fliegende Blätter, 67.1877, Nr. 1684, S. 148). 

"Unitentional crudity" from a sketch by Adolf Oberländer.

But, I digress ... 

So, below the image of the tools from the 1875 edition that I was originally asked about ...

Some of the bookbinder's tools ...

This image was preceded by the "typical" workshop ... It was interesting to compare the image below with the one in my copy. Same image, different degrees of coloration - in mine the top half was uncolored.

The bookbinder's workshop ... Of interest, the apparent selling
of books at right.

The trades included in this edition were: baker, tailor, butcher, tanner, shoemaker, saddlers, carpenters, wheelwrights, coopers, construction workers, metalworkers, and bookbinders (Schneider, Bäcker, Metzger, Gerber, Schuhmacher, Sattler, Schreiner, Wagner, Küfer, Bauhandwerker, Schlosser und Buchbinder). Each trade was described in the text section and given two lithographs, one of the workshop and one of the typical tools. The trade and tools were described in sections at the beginning of the book.

I found a copy of the 4th edition from [1890] and ordered it, because, why not ... Sadly this copy was lacking the introduction, but I did find the 1875 edition online with introduction at the Stabi in Berlin (digital images with clean transcriptions of the text). Below a translation of the introduction using DeepL that captured the for the time typical flow of the text ...:

Since the illustrated textbook for visual instruction, titled 30 Workshops of Artisans which had been used with great success for several years in many schools and educational institutions throughout our homeland and beyond, and had been published in six editions had gone out of print, and since the publishing house did not wish to reprint the illustrations and descriptions, which were no longer up to date, it decided, in response to widespread demand from the teaching community, to give the work a thorough overhaul.

The undersigned was happy to undertake the task assigned to him: to depict the work of the most common artisans in a simple manner and to show in the illustration only those activities in which the artisan works without complex, artificial machines and does not himself become a machine. Only in the case of the tailor and the shoemaker did he allow himself to make an exception by including the sewing machine, which should come as no surprise when one considers that, at present, even in the most remote villages and in ordinary middle-class households, such machines have found acceptance and use, and there is hardly a tailor left who works without one.

Of the work’s 24 folio-sized illustrations, 12 depict craftsmen at work in their workshops at a scale that allows them to be clearly seen even from a considerable distance during classroom instruction, while another 12 plates illustrate the most important tools.

Because these new drawings utilized the entire surface of a folio sheet to depict a craftsman’s workshop, this purpose was served even more effectively than in the earlier edition through the use of enlarged figures and so on. Previously, within the same space, an image of the craftsman and his tools had been grouped around it; now, the many tools fill a separate sheet all by themselves.

The most talented artists—who visited the artisans themselves in their workshops and thus created the illustrations directly from their own observations—worked on these new drawings, which had never before been rendered with such clarity; and the publisher carried out the reproduction with enthusiasm and care, utilizing all the latest techniques of color printing and coloration.

The text aims to provide both a brief description of the activities and a concise historical overview of the trade in question. For each craft, historical notes are included about notable figures who were associated with the trade or about particularly famous works produced by those engaged in it. This provides the craftsman with a picture of his occupation that, while presented in brief outline, is nevertheless generally complete. He will be pleased to recognize what a shining beacon the trade is in the history of our nation’s cultural development, and for young people, it may serve as a reminder to look upon these magnificent testaments to human will and endeavor, diligence, and strength with respect and joy. Both the young and the old will find here an equally rich source of instruction as well as entertainment.

And so, this revised edition of the classic work is warmly recommended to schools and families, to teachers and school principals, as well as to the artisans themselves.

May it receive the same warm reception as in the past, just like the other widely distributed illustrated works for visual instruction and other youth publications that have emerged from this renowned publishing house.

Eßlingen, August 1875.

Resources like the above continued to be produced into the 20th century. Below the image for bookbinding from Meinholds Handwerkerbilder, [1924]. This was number 15 in the series illustrating trades. They were produced by Meinhold und Söhne, Dresden primarily as "posters" that were suspended on wooden rods for classroom use. The scan below is from a postcard series that was also issued.

Bookbinding from Meinholds Handwerkerbilder, [1924]

Introductions to the bookbinding trade were also published by the national guild, introducing those interested in a more formal way to what they could expect, in one case with some interesting before and after contrasts. That's for another time though.

So, it's always good to have a sense of the kind of trade your parents will send you off to learn beforehand, even if the images make it look much more welcoming than it might turn out to be ...