Thüringer Küchenmöbel invoice, 1938

This invoice by a Thuringian manufacturer of kitchen furniture features some of the ingredients of the Elementary Typography as propagandized by Jan Tschichold in his supplement of Typographische Mitteilungen published in October 1925 — namely sans serif type arranged in strong hierarchies which are established through contrast in size and color, further increased by heavy bars and underlines. Felix Wiedler’s website and modernism101.com have some images of the interior of this influential booklet, featuring works by El Lissitzky, Herbert Bayer and others. See also this lecture invitation.

Thirteen years later, when the pioneers of the New Typography had left the country, its impact was still visible. This anonymous piece of everday typography, issued 70 miles west of Weimar where the Bauhaus was located until March 1925, is merely a diluted rehash, though. It lacks the finesse and rigor of the modernist examples presented in Elementare Typographie, and appears rather messy, with too many focal points, alignments and type styles. The two stickers with extra information about cash discount deduction and insurance don’t help either.

The terms of sale and delivery printed on the back are set in Holländische Antiqua. This “Dutch Roman” was issued by the Heinrich Hoffmeister foundry in Leipzig in 1900. It is a idiosyncratic variation of the German Elzevirs (see Romanisch etc.), distinguished by an ‘e’ with angled bar, convex diagonals for ‘M’ or ‘V’, and crossing bars on ‘A’ and ‘H’.