Unpaginated (22 pp.) booklet demonstrating the uses and fonts of the Metropolis typeface from the Stempel AG type foundry. Quarto (11 5/8 x 8 1/8 inches). Original Art Deco-style illustrated wrappers. Some light edgewear and soiling to wrappers, minor toning, interior clean, overall very good. [Frankfurt am Main]: D. Stempel AG, 1929.

The D. Stempel AG type foundry was founded in 1895 by David Stempel in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Many important font designers worked for Stempel, including Hans Bohn, Warren Chappell, F.H. Ehmcke, Friedrich Heinrichsen, Hanns Th. Hoyer, F.W. Kleukens, Erich Meyer, Hans Möhring, Martin Wilke, Victor Hammer, Rudolf Wolf, Hermann Zapf, and others. With the invention of the Memphis font in 1929, Stempel became the first foundry to cast modern slab serif typefaces.

As indicated by the title page of this booklet, Metropolis was designed by Willy Schwerdtner in 1929 and provides "a series which through its contrasting weights and special long ascenders gives possibilities of effective advertising composition not previously obtainable". This catalogue was German-made but for the American market, imported and for sale exclusively by the Continental Typefounders Association Inc. of New York.

The Metropolis typeface is very evocative of the Deco period and of modernity. The cover illustration is suggestive of a skyscraper, and the mocked-up advertisements showing the font's usage include innovations in automobile technology, radios, travel, fashion, metal "as modern as tomorrow". The false advertisements are followed by several pages of various specimens of the typeface, including standard, bold, and with long ascenders.

As of July 2026, OCLC locates two holdings in North American institutional libraries of this edition of the Metropolis typeface catalog.

Book ID: 53745

Price: $950.00