Cover Page of the “Index of Recommendable Juvenile and Popular Literature” of the Verlagsbuchhandlung Seybold and Lucas Verlag, Munich (Proof), 1916

Emil Pirchan (1884–1957) studied architecture at the class of Otto Wagner (1841–1918) from 1903 to 1906 at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts. He subsequently worked primarily as a commercial artist, and from 1919 was among the leading stage designers in the German-speaking world. By his own admission, the universally talented artist created more than 1,500 works of commercial art when he lived in Munich between 1908 and 1918, including some 50 posters, numerous logos, bookplates, poster stamps, designs for packaging, technical illustrations for user manuals, calendar sheets, invitation cards, book illustrations, templates for flyleaves, coloring books for children as well as playing cards. In 1913, he founded a private art school for advertising art in Munich. This advertisement draws attention to the product range of the publishers Fr. Seybold’s (Ansbach) and Lucas (Munich) with lettering in the attractive yellow of the light emitted by the candles on the Christmas tree.

IR, 2023