HENDRIK NICOLAAS WERKMAN
GENERAL PRINTED MATTER
35 publications from two private collections
(lot 440 to 475)
The following lots cover the period during which Hendrik Nicolaas Werkman worked as a clandestine printer for De Blauwe Schuit (The Blue Barge) in Groningen. It were five years of hardship caused by the second world war.
It all started one evening in 1940 when three friends decided to have a New Years wish published, to reflect their common feelings under German occupation. They chose a poem by Martinus Nijhoff with an illustrative woodcut by Jan Wiegers. Werkman was invited to typeset and print the limited edition. It was the first of a total of 40 publications by De Blauwe Schuit.
The name of this publishing house was derived by one of the founders, Mr. F.R.A. Henkels, from the painting by Jeroen Bosch die blaue Scute (the fool's ship), a vessel for all who could not board elsewhere.
In 1942 they were forced to go underground, although in retrospect Henkels means that De Blauwe Schuit should not be mistaken for a resistance group. Their aim was to reach the individual susceptive to the implications underlying the texts they spread in small booklets as connotations on the word's events during the second world war.
It was Werkman who interpreted these implicit emotions in his non-conventional printing techniques. As early as in the 1920's he experimented with materials he came across with in his by then bankrupt printing works. Numerals, letters and punctuation marks were inked and printed as seperate elements one at a time; a technique corresponding with the collage as Kurt Schwitters employed it. Hot printing was the name Werkman found for his technique. At a later stage he introduced the inkroll and the stencilprinting as new tools. We find all of these in the present lots combined with conventional printing for the texts.
Due to this technical complexity the editions of De Blauwe Schuit were of a small number, as indicated in the justifications, although these in some instances deliberately falsify the edition size (see lot 444 and 445). This was the answer of the skippers to the paper restrictions under German occupation.
The paper scarcity did not severely effect the publishing house, since they found resource in the stock that was left in the warehouse of Werkman's printworks after it's bankruptcy. Occasionaly however, they turned to more remarkable supply, such as a hundred years old household record used by monks (lot 447).
As a result of the technique involved there were discrepancies between prints of the same publication and some proofs aside editions are also known (compare lot 452).
In 1945 the cladestine printing for De Blauwe Schuit came to an end. Just as well In Agris Occupatis, which was a second small illegal publishing house Werkman affiliated with, closed the doors. The Groningers celebrated their liberation. Whilst Werkman tragicly was executed three days in advance.
Hendrik Nicolaas Werkman (1882-1945)
Die Predigt des neuen Jahrs (Martinet - Hot Printing 41-g1)
Details
Hendrik Nicolaas Werkman (1882-1945)
Die Predigt des neuen Jahrs (Martinet - Hot Printing 41-g1)
the booklet, 1941, covers and eight pages, with stencil-printed frontcover in colours, on wove paper, with text by Martin Buber and explanatory note, from the edition of 60, published by De Blauwe Schuit (Logboek 2), some soft handling folds and creases, the binding loose, otherwise generally in good condition
S. 367 x 248 mm.
Die Predigt des neuen Jahrs (Martinet - Hot Printing 41-g1)
the booklet, 1941, covers and eight pages, with stencil-printed frontcover in colours, on wove paper, with text by Martin Buber and explanatory note, from the edition of 60, published by De Blauwe Schuit (Logboek 2), some soft handling folds and creases, the binding loose, otherwise generally in good condition
S. 367 x 248 mm.
Literature
F.R.A. Henkels Logboek van De Blauwe Schuit, Amsterdam (A.A. Balkema) 1946
J. Martinet an W. Sandberg (inleiding) Hot printing, Amsterdam (Stichting H.N. Werkman) 1963
J. Martinet an W. Sandberg (inleiding) Hot printing, Amsterdam (Stichting H.N. Werkman) 1963