76 768 Zwart P
- A few tiny tears in blank margins; otherwise fine.
= PZ-300. MONOGRAMMED and dated "±1923" by Zwart in pencil in lower right corner.
Extremely rare, early and unrecorded (except in our auction of 2016) design, preceding and resembling the LAGA and IOCO vignettes. Cf. Broos '73 p.37; cf. Purvis p.64; cf. Brentjens p.103 and 116; cf. Monguzzi p.9; cf. Muller p18f and 21; cf. Spencer '69, p.108; cf. Neue Grafik p.19; cf. Hollis p.70; cf. Meggs p.353; cf. Cohen p.2; cf. PZ-048, PZ-100, PZ-150 and PZ-250.
"Al eerder had [Zwart], net als Huszár, wat geëxperimenteerd met getekende letters voor briefhoofden en ex-librissen in de geest van Wijdeveld. Diens nadruk op zware horizontale balken zien we in de eerste werkstukjes terug. Ook verwant er mee zijn de handelsmerken (XYLOS, LAGA, IOCO), die als logotype binnen het kader van een vierkant heel vernuftig uit zwarte blokjes zijn samengesteld" (Broos p.36). "At the age of 36 Zwart did his first typographic work for the Dutch representative of the importer Vickers House. The initial pieces suggest Huszár's approach in his 1917 cover for De Stijl (...). The use of heavy horizontal and vertical bars recalls some of Zwart's earlier efforts with hand-drawn letters in the Wendingen style, and there is an overtone of engineering and solid construction. However, even in their formative stages Zwart's designs go much further than Huszár's and are far more playful and experimental (...). The trademarks XYLOS, LAGA, and IOCO are made into logotypes constructed within a square framework. These too are closely related to the Wendingen style" (Purvis p.63f). SEE ILLUSTRATION PLATE XXXVII.