Normalgrotesk (Blockschrift) von Walter Käch

OK. Get ready. This one is an exceedingly rare 1961 educational portfolio conceived, lettered, and designed by the legendary lettering master and Kunstgewerbeschule Zürich educator Walter Käch. It serves as a rigorous structural blueprint for lettering construction and the twelve plates (plus title leaf) systematically dissect the geometry of Normalgrotesk (Wide Block Lettering), revealing how modern, stark sans-serif letterforms directly inherit their visual balance, optical weights, and proportions from classical Roman square capitals. It was created exclusively as an internal instructional handout for a three-day vocational workshop in Bern, sponsored by the Swiss federal labor agency (BIGA) for master trade instructors of sign-makers and painters. In 1964, the sheets were issued by Verlag des Schweizerischen Maler- und Gipsermeister-Verbandes (Publishing House of the Swiss Association of Master Painters and Plasterers) of Zurich and more recently served as the source for Dinamo’s digital revival ABC Walter. WorldCat shows one copy in Zollikofen, Switzerland—and that’s it. RARE.