Het Praktische Letterboek voor den Schilder

First, Google translates the text on the cover of this portfolio as “The Practical Letter Book for the Painter.” And now you know as much as we did when we first got this—until we asked Mathieu Lommen about it. He reported (from one of his books):

In France, model books with innovative art deco letter forms came out during this period. Well-known are those by Draim, the pseudonym of Victor Miard. Somewhat similar—though less pronounced and technically of a different level—is Het praktische letterboek voor den schilder by H. Helwig. The undated folder was probably marketed around 1930 by Van der Burg and Muls, a Schiedam [Netherlands] brush factory with brush-making facilities. Distribution will have taken place through painters’ shops. Presumably, the author was the Hague-based house and decoration painter H.C. Helwig (1884–1975), who in 1931 published a general painting handbook.

So, you know how Speedball published books about lettering and calligraphy in order to get people to buy nibs and pens? Apparently this, too, was a marketing devise for a brush manufacturer. The letters here are often wildly adventurous, pushing the limits of our known shapes and our ability to recognize and read them. WorldCat shows no copies anywhere and the Internet hardly acknowledges its existence.

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