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Das Plakat: A closer look.

Das Plakat: A Closer Look.

Our upcoming auction includes 9 volumes of Das Plakata seminal publication that chronicled poster design, graphic design, illustration, and branding. Nearly 100 years after its final issue, it continues to provide a wealth of information and inspiration to collectors, artists, and designers alike.

Dr. Hans Sachs.

Das Plakat was launched in 1910 by a dentist who loved posters. Dr. Hans Josef Sachs was already a fervent collector of posters; in 1905, he founded the Verein der Plakat Freunde (The Society for Friends of the Poster), and Das Plakat became their official publication. In its first years of publication, 4-6 issues were released annually in a print run of 200 copies. By 1920, new issues were released monthly and printed in copies of 5,000. Clearly, the magazine was a hit.

Josef Fenneker, March 1921.

As an affichomaniac, Dr. Sachs had his finger on the pulse of commercial design—not just in Germany, but around the world. Each issue of Das Plakat was designed by a posterist of the period, and they were given complete control over every design aspect, from the typography to the cover. These artists included Schnackenberg, Bernhard, Mangold, Scheurich, Cardinaux, Hohlwein, Schildberger, the Beggarstaff Brothers, Baumberger, and Fenneker. Hundreds of illustrations and poster tip-ons filled the pages while essays discussed the philosophy, ethics, and impact of the medium. The magazine not only pleased fellow poster lovers, but legitimized this fairly new field of graphic design and paved the way for commercial design as we know it today.

“[Das Plakat] not only exhibited the finest poster examples from Germany and other European countries, but its high standards, underscored by exquisite printing, established qualitative criteria that defined the decade of graphic design between 1910 and 1920.” —Steven Heller

In his 1957 essay, “The World’s Largest Poster Collector,” Dr. Sachs wrote of his posters, “I am grateful to the fates for the decades in which I was able to find such joy in my treasures and for the environment which made all this possible. They were an infinitely rich and significant part of my spiritual, artistic, and human development.”

At Auction on Nov. 15:
Das Plakat: 9 Volumes. 1912-1921.

One of the most complete sets we’ve ever offered.
Est: $17,000-$20,000

Das Plakat – A Photo Essay

Walter Schnackenberg

William H. Bradley

Lucian Bernhard

Ludwig Hohlwein

Incredible Covers

Max Schildberger, May 1914

Josef Fenneker, March 1921

Ludwig Kainer, May-July 1918

Paul Scheurich, April 1912

Emil Preetorius, March 1913

Stephan Krotowski, December 1920

Walter Kampmann, June 1921

Peter Behrens, June 1920

The best graphic design

Endless plates and prints

Elisabeth von Sydow, 1919

Elisabeth von Sydow, 1919

Fritz Erler, 1918

Paul Scheurich, 1918

Jupp Wiertz, 1920

Adolf Uzarski, 1919

Leonard, 1919

Walter Kampmann, 1920

Jupp Wiertz, 1919

Paul Meyer, 1921

Willi Roerts, September 1915

Eric Rohman, 1921

Hans Unger, 1899

Artur Berger, 1914

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