“Das Strandgespräch” handbill

This handbill advertising a “cheap beach and travel package” of first-class quality letter paper and lined envelopes in five colors was issued (and very likely also printed) by A. Frerichs, a letterpress printer, publisher, book and stationeries dealer in Norderney, Germany.

The exclusively typographic design features Etienne schmal, Neueste schmale Grotesk, and two weights from the typeface series sold by Weber under the name Aurora-Grotesk: the bold V, also known from Ludwig Wagner as Edel-Grotesk fett and from Amsterdam as Annonce, and the medium VII, or Edel-Grotesk halbfett. The narrow sans with flaring stems that’s used for the price (95 Pfennige) is Werbe-Grotesk. The inclusion of this Ludwig & Mayer typeface tells us the handbill can’t be any older than from 1915. Chances are it dates from around 1920.

This piece of ephemera includes two errors that were common with handset type: In the second line below the price, the sort between “blau,” and “braun” was placed upside-down. Instead of a blank space, we get to see the image of the inked underside (the foot), with two black squares separated by the groove. Since this resembles the large eyes of a fly, it’s also known as Fliegenkopf (“fly head”) in German letterpress lingo. Two lines below, the first e in “Seidenfutter” is flipped. This slip could have been caught by the missing nick, i.e. the little notch that should be facing up. Also note the use of ditto mark (〃), here in the form of (curly) quotation marks, placed center-aligned underneath each of the repeated words or numbers.