Schriftguss AG explained

Schriftguss AG
Founders:Butter Brothers
Type:Defunct
Fate:Merged into VEB Typoart
Predecessor:Otto Ludwig Bechert Type Foundry
Successor:VEB Typoart
Location:Dresden, Germany
Industry:Type foundry

Schriftguss AG was a type foundry in Germany founded in 1892 under the name Brüder Butter (“Butter Brothers”) by purchasing the type casting firm of Otto Ludwig Bechert that had been founded in 1889. It was later incorporated in 1922 as Schriftguss A.-G. vorm. [prev.] Brüder Butter. Their types were known for “vigour, liveliness and freshness.” Though some faces were done in house, the foundry mainly worked with outside “Schriftkünstler” (freelance lettering artists / type designers), more than was typical at the time. A unique product of the foundry were modular systems of “Plakattype” to compose shapes and letterforms for display and jobbing applications, for instance Dekora, or Albert Auspurg’s 1931 Ne-Po (negative–positive), and finally Super-Plakattype in 1949. After the Nazi seizure of power in 1933 the last of the Butter brothers resigned from the corporation and it was changed to a limited partnership. In 1948 the company was expropriated by the post-war communist government and became public property, under the name VEB Schriftguss Dresden, eventually becoming merged into VEB Typoart – Drucktypen, Matrizen, Messinglinien in 1951. As a state run enterprise, the foundry lost its verve and panache and settled into producing serviceable type without distinction.[1]

Typefaces[2]

In-house faces

These type faces were produced in house by Schriftguss:[3]

Spanish faces

A 1925 Schriftguss catalog in Spanish includes these and other typefaces, vignettes, and “tipos de cartel”:[3]

Out-of-house designs

Faces originally cast by other foundries

These type faces were produced by other foundries and licensed by Schriftguss:[15]

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Schriftguss AG vorm. Brüder Butter . Alphabettes . 2016-01-16 . 2021-01-02.
  2. Unless otherwise noted, all types in this list are cited from Web site: SchriftgussAG type list. Klingspor Museum . Klingspor Museum, Offenbach, Germany . 8 January 2021.
  3. Web site: Schriftguss AG Pro. Luc Devroye . 1999-02-22 . 2011-10-20.
  4. Jaspert, W. Pincus, W. Turner Berry and A.F. Johnson, The Encyclopedia of Type Faces. Blandford Press Lts.: 1953, 1983,, p. 10.
  5. Jaspert, W. Pincus, W. Turner Berry and A.F. Johnson, The Encyclopedia of Type Faces. Blandford Press Lts.: 1953, 1983,, p. 367.
  6. Jaspert, W. Pincus, W. Turner Berry and A.F. Johnson, The Encyclopedia of Type Faces. Blandford Press Lts.: 1953, 1983,, p. 65.
  7. Web site: Peter A. Demeter . Luc Devroye. School of Computer Science, McGill University, Montreal, Canada. 2 January 2021.
  8. Jaspert, W. Pincus, W. Turner Berry and A.F. Johnson, The Encyclopedia of Type Faces. Blandford Press Lts.: 1953, 1983,, p. 68.
  9. Jaspert, W. Pincus, W. Turner Berry and A.F. Johnson, The Encyclopedia of Type Faces. Blandford Press Lts.: 1953, 1983,, p. 375.
  10. Jaspert, W. Pincus, W. Turner Berry and A.F. Johnson, The Encyclopedia of Type Faces. Blandford Press Lts.: 1953, 1983,, p. 174.
  11. Jaspert, W. Pincus, W. Turner Berry and A.F. Johnson, The Encyclopedia of Type Faces. Blandford Press Lts.: 1953, 1983,, p. 154-5.
  12. Web site: August Piehler . Klingspor Museum. Klingspor Museum. 9 January 2021.
  13. Jaspert, W. Pincus, W. Turner Berry and A.F. Johnson, The Encyclopedia of Type Faces. Blandford Press Lts.: 1953, 1983,, p. 333.
  14. Jaspert, W. Pincus, W. Turner Berry and A.F. Johnson, The Encyclopedia of Type Faces. Blandford Press Lts.: 1953, 1983,, p. 335.
  15. Web site: Schriftguss AG vorm. Brüder Butter . Alphabettes . 2016-01-16 . 2021-01-02. This site also lists Demeter Schraffiert and Fournier Geperlt as Barnhart Brothers & Spindler faces, but other sources list them as having been designed in house.

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