Berthold Wolpe. A Retrospective Survey

License: All Rights Reserved.

Berthold Wolpe designed this cover for the catalog of a career retrospective of his work that was published jointly by the Victoria & Albert Museum and Faber & Faber publishers in 1980, when Wolpe was 75.

The cover type is a film version of Wolpe's Pegasus, which he designed c. 1937 for Monotype. The new film version for this catalog was, according to the colophon, "… composed by MFK Graphic Systems … using first time fonts especially prepared by Matthew Carter for Mergenthaler Linotype after the design of Berthold Wolpe".

The preface also gives credit to Des Edwards of Conways who "made the Pegasus founts".

Wolpe was born in Offenbach and apprenticed to a metalworkers firm. His basic training in metal work, as well as his interest in calligraphy, led him to type design. His most famous typeface, Albertus, was designed for Stanley Morison at Monotype in about 1932, after some letters that Wolpe had originally done in bronze.

He left Germany in 1935 for England, where he stayed for the rest of his life. He created tapestries, jewelry, coins, and metal vessels, as well as designs for typefaces and books. His monumental legacy includes over 1,500 book jackets for Faber & Faber, many of which were hand-lettered.

Wolpe died in 1989.

Source: http://bowfinprintworks.com.© Michael Yanega, Bowfin Printworks. License: All Rights Reserved.

Matthew Carter's version (1982 & 1997) of Berthold Wolpe's 1937 typeface. Scan from 'The Art of Matthew Carter', Princeton Architectural Press (2003)