Artiphon (Germany) / 1919
Corporate background:
Thanks to Chris
Zwarg, who supplied the
following info:
“The Artiphon company was founded in
1919; your picture shows their first variant of label, current
in 1919-1920.
“The next style, chronologically, had
a green background with the same logo and typography as yours,
then (mid-1920s) came a dark-blue label with a prominent white
letter A as a logo, and finally (early 1930s) a purple label
with gold print.
“The company went bankrupt during the
depression in early 1932.“
Design: A
shadowed ‘Gothick’ with blobby-serifed
mock-medieval decorated initials.
The baseline of the word
‘Artiphon’ follows a gentle arc, the letters
retaining their vertical emphasis rather than being splayed
outward from a central radius.
The fat underlining ‘Coca Cola’
style swash was a popular graphic at this time (see also the Federal label).
