As a supplement to the exhibition “In die nächste Dimension! – Kartonmodelle aus Neuruppin” (To the next dimension – card models from Neuruppin) at the Museum Neuruppin, the Arbeitskreis Geschichte des Kartonmodellbaus (AGK) e. V. and the Museum Neuruppin have published a book about this special chapter in the history of printed products from Neuruppin.
While many articles and books have been published about the “Épinal prints” (posters or broadsheets telling a story) from Neuruppin, this book is the first one to tell the story of card model prints.
About 1000 card models are just a part of an estimated total of 22000 different sheets that were printed in Neuruppin over a time span of more than 100 years; however, producing a card model was much more of a challenge than a simple broadsheet. The designers and artists were not just asked to deliver good “plain” illustrations, but also to imagine the three-dimensional built model and – unfortunately sometimes omitted – to proof the cardboard design by actually building the model.
Several chapters are dedicated to the history of the printers and publishers from Neuruppin and to explain the lithographic print process that was the technical foundation of their art. Other chapters throw a light on the sociological aspects of the printing business by contrasting the economical view of the publishers against the situation of their colourists (mostly women and children) whose job it was to colourise the printed sheets in several process steps.
The main part of the book is a catalogue of 50 representative, typical models, in most cases including a full-page image of the model sheet and always accompanied by bibliographical information about the model sheet. In most cases a photo of the built model is also provided.
kartonmodellbau.org)