Vienna: Wien-Progress, 1930. Quarto (29 × 20.6 cm). Original decorative wrappers; [1] leaf of introductory text followed by [12] leaves of letter sets with gummed versos. Entirely unused; near fine.

First and only edition of a scarce, pioneering publication of adhesive letter shapes, meant for composing advertising posters and other ephemeral genres with a clear, incisive message. Nothing is known about the creators of this negative sans serif font, but the typeface was recently the subject of a digital “revival” by the Austrian foundry FaceType: “Blitzplakat is the name of a pre-Letraset system, which enabled you to make your own advertising posters by cutting out these letters and sticking them onto paper like stamps.” Interestingly, the term “Blitzplakat” seems to stem from the work of trade unions and factory committees, where it played a similar role to wall newspapers.

Predictably, intact copies are scarce. As of March 2023, KVK, OCLC locate one holding, at Cologne, with none in North America.

Book ID: 52809

Price: $2,500.00