A camaraderie of competitiveness

[Invitations.]

Minneapolis & Saint Paul: Ampersand Club, 1972-present. A collection of approximately 125 Ampersand Club invitations ranging in size from large folio to 16mo, all but a handful printed letterpress by such printers as: Jim Eckman, Norm Fritzberg, Phil Gallo, Allan Kornblum, Gerry Lange, Paul Maravelas, Russell Maret, Paulette Myers-Rich, Will Powers, Dave Rathman, Gaylord Schanilec, Wilbur "Chip" Schilling, Richard Stevens, Emily Mason Strayer, Michael Tarachow, Emerson Wulling, and certainly many others, inviting Ampersanders to talks, lectures, and/or hostings by: the Hon. Governor Elmer L. Andersen, Harriet Bart, Betty Bright, Clifford Burke, Greg Campbell, Steve Clay, Pat Coleman, Amanda Degener, Scott Helmes, Johathan E. Hill, Jerry Farrell, Maria Fredericks, Rosemary Furtak, Molly & John Harris, Michael Hancher, Bob Jackson, Gunnar Kaldewey, Daniel Kelm, Stuart Klipper, Abe Lerner, Harry Lerner, Austin McLean, Jack Parker, Robin Price, Maggie Ragnow, John & Rose Randle, Jeff Rathermel, Karen Runyon, Dale Schwie, Ken Storm, Jr., Claire Van Vliet, Jeff Weber, Jody Williams, as well as the aforementioned Gallo, Powers, Maravelas, Maret, Powers, Rathman, Schanilec, Schilling, and the rest of the gang. The Ampersand Club has a long tradition of providing letterpress invitations to its events which occur more or less monthly September through April, and concluding with an annual dinner meeting in May. Tradition holds that printers print anonymously, so the names of presses and printers are not included in the invitation copy. Over the years Gallo has printed no fewer than 50 (a dozen or so are included here). In his notes for his own Hermetic Press archive Gallo notes: "The invitations tend toward the decorative, this most particularly with the early ones when there was a camaraderie of competitiveness among the printers: Gerald Lange, Michael Tarachow, Norm Fritzberg, Allan Kornblum, and Gaylord Schanilec. Consequently, these invitations display a wide range of handset foundry typefaces, designed not only to be sparkling works, but to spark typographic conversations." While this collection is a long way from being complete, and many as yet undetermined as to printer or press, this offering of 125 is by far the largest group of such invitations ever to come on the market. Item #52136

Price: $600.00