August Bagel Düsseldorf ad
August Bagel’s printing firm offered book production, artistic printing, lithography, but also publishing and distribution. In addition, it had an in-house bookbindery as well as a paper mill.
This ad from 1909 makes early use of Ehmcke-Antiqua. Designed by Fritz Helmuth Ehmcke, the typeface was first cast by Flinsch around 1908. Caslon in England had the design as Carlton and Neufville in Spain as Antigua Cervantes. In the 1970s, Letraset made a revival using Caslon’s name, see Carlton. Here it’s used exclusively in capitals, stacked and justified, with compact umlauts, (some) tightly spaced CH pairs, and the non-ligning numerals.
August Bagel (1838–1916) took over the company from his father, Peter August Bagel (1809–1881), who had established it in Eggerscheidt and moved it to Düsseldorf in 1878. Bagel’s publishing range included school books, maps and illustrated books. Bagel is still in business today, now focusing on official gazettes for the State of North Rhine-Westphalia. They also produce postage stamps.
1 Comment on “August Bagel Düsseldorf ad”
Ehmcke and Bagel must have known each other. Maybe Ehmcke even designed this ad himself.
In 1910, Bagel printed Idyllen des Theokrit, a book published by Eugen Diederichs and designed at the Kunstgewerbeschule Düsseldorf in 1910 under the direction of Ehmcke, using his Antiqua. In 1911, Bagel printed Wilhelm Niemeyer. Malerische Impressionen und Koloristischer Rhythmus, a monograph designedby Ehmcke, combining Ehmcke-Antiqua with titles in Ehmcke’s Sonderbundschrift which later was known as Rustika. In the same year, Ehmcke’s own Ziele des Schriftunterrichts. Ein Beitrag zur modernen Schriftbewegung was printed by Bagel, too, again set in Ehmcke-Antiqua.
From: F.H. Ehmcke und seine Neusser Schüler, edited by H.Cossmann, E. Malzburg, and J. Urbach. Neuss: Clemens-Sels-Museum, 1984.