DAS BUCH DER WERKZEICHEN
Imre Reiner
Imre Reiner: DAS BUCH DER WERKZEICHEN. St. Gallen: Verlag Zollikofer & Company, 1945. First edition. Text in German. Quarto. Tan paper covered boards titled in black. Printed dust jacket. 122 pp. 288 line illustrations. Dust jacket spine sun darkened and chipped to crown. Mild edgewear. Tiny ink notation to front free endpaper. A nearly fine copy in a very good dust jacket.
8 x 10.5 hardcover book with 122 pages and 288 black and white and two-color examples of monograms, marks and ornamentation. Lovely Swiss production printed on uncoated cream stock and of course, beautifully typeset. Collection of marks from the 1400s to the 1700s. Includes marks by William Caxton and many others.
“Die edlen Jade-, Elfenbein-, Kristall-Und Bronzesiegel des frühen China, die robusten Holzstempel der französischen und spanischen Kaufleute der Renaissance, die Signete persischer und italienischer Töpfer, die eigenwilligen Meisterzeichen der Jormschneidekunst, der Steinmetzer, der Gold- und Silberschmiede, der Papiermacher und Buchdrucker der verschiedensten Länder und Zeiten sind ihrer vornehmen graphischen Ausdrucksform wegen hier zu einer Schau gesammelt worden und sind allen Menschen von gutem Geschmack gewidmet.”
"Our object should be to establish contact with tradition, using our own means, and thus turning the short-comings we feel when comparing ourselves with past achievements into virtues by dint of diligence."—Irme Reiner, LETTERING IN BOOK ART [1947]
Imre Reiner (1900 – 1987) worked as a graphic designer in London, Paris, New York and Chicago and studied with F. H. Ernst Schneidler, a well-known German designer. In 1931, he moved to Ruvigliana near Lugano to paint, design and illustrate. He designed many fonts including Meridian (1930), Corvinus (1934–35), Matura (1938), Symphonie (1938), Reiner Script (1951), Reiner Black (1955), Mustang (1956), London Script (1957), Mercurius (1957), and Pepita (1959).