Company History

Mehner & Maas, Fine arts (lithogr.) printing company was set up on Feb. 15, 1893 at Leipzig-Reudnitz. By 1897 the business occupied 1-3rd floor of rear house Hohen- zollernstr. 11.

businessman Paul Georg Mehner. Mr. Maas played probably an investor role only during the early years

Paul Mehner soon realised that  chromo lithographic printing process (slow and costly) alone would lead to disadvantages. Similar to competitors,  M. & M. introduced an Autochrome-like process (halftone image, 3 to 4 colours superimposed by litho process) by early 1901 which they named “Auto-Bunt”. A bit later collotype printing presses were installed.

According a 1907 published printing trade directory, M. & M. had just 3 litho presses and employed 40 persons. Wondering if this entry is fully correct / up-to-date.

This view from a place in (Austro) Hungary looks like a typical “Greetings from..” design, but was registered for Mehner & Maas as D.R.G.M. 102060, an entry that should date from late 1890’s. Because of the rainbow added? An imprint on picture side turns this card into a printing sample, describing the colour quality as “photo colour”. Well, it is a good quality chromolithographic printing. Nothing else.

Gruss aus Neustrelitz, Germany. Mehner & Maas card no. 4983 (found on picture side). P/u August 1904. Old style design but already printed by “Auto-Bunt”. Dirt comes from black album pages. Picture side surface was given a fine cotton like structure. Typical M. & M. colours (see below).

The above illustrated M & M L logo and the here shown variation were found so far on a few cards from Egypt only. Quite some cards show full name imprinted and I believe that M. & M. were often also the publishers of these views.

The major markets of Mehner & Maas, Leipzig, according clearly identified card finds were Germany, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Italy, eastern Europe countries and the Ottoman Empire / Orient.

Good for identifying M. & M. printed cards is the unusual look of many of their “Auto-Bunt / Farben-Auto” cards. No idea what type of inks they used for the litho colour runs, but they look mostly matt and “milky” somehow. Except those that were given a lacquer finish of course.

But best for a quick identification is the characteristic M. & M. card / image number, especially as often a not so common type font  was used (see ill. please). Cards from the undivided era usually show this number on picture side. An Italian view bears it on the undivided back, however. Not surprising that there is no rule without exception. Some M. & M. cards have card/image number in regular Times-like type with stop.

‘Salut de Constantinople’ Series

The biggest ppc series printed  by Mehner & Maas I know of is on Constantinople. By chance I found a lot of some 40 diff. views, almost all of topo type, few could be filed under ethnic views. My samples with undivided back (card no. in red on picture side at lower right corner) show numbers ranging from 7792 to 9675. Div. back views: lowest no. 6197 - highest 11085, found on address side lower left corner near the typical decorative border. All printed in green ink. This shows that the M. & M. card/image numbers were used also for reprints. The publisher very likely was (local) Ludwigsohn fréres. Info kindly provided by Gökhun Yılmaz, Turkey.

Illustrated is a small selection of the major type fonts used by Mehner & Maas, Leipzig. All ills. blown up by same degree  –  Below left: Salut de Constantinople, Les Dervices Tourneurs. M: & M. no. 7992. And card no. 8428 (dividided back) with view of port: Quai de Galata. Both cards (as all my cards) not postally used.

Advert from “Papier-Zeitung” no. 50 (June) 1906. M. & M. offers ppc printing by their colour process as well as multi-colour collotype, which is not correct. Meant is the then popular combined collotype/litho process. Surprising however,  the mention of own genre / subject / series cards. A sample collection of 200 diff. is offered. Never seen such an card so far.

View of the city of Lauban, Silesia, not p/u, div. back = post-1905, MM no. 11057 and full name imprinted. A collotype printing with litho overlay colours. The well done lacquer finish gives it a warm look.