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Mehner & Maas, was another of the many Leipzig, Saxony based picture postcard printing / publishing companies. Similar to local competitor H. Ludewig however, the identification of ppc’s printed by M. & M. requires often a closer look. The logo illustrated above (found a panorama view card of Port Said, Egypt - M. & M. no. 12394) appears to had been rarely used. The company history / their business success, was closely connected with the ppc boom years.
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Company History
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Mehner & Maas, Fine arts (lithographc) printing company was set up on February 1, 1893 at Leipzig-Reudnitz. By 1897 the business occupied 1st - 3rd floor of the rear house Hohen- zollernstr. 11. Their sole speciality then was picture postcard printing / publishing. Similar to many other partnerships, the business was soon run (owned) by a sole partner only: businessman Paul Georg Mehner. Mr. Maas played probably only an investor role during the early years.
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Mehner & Maas 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. I have no reliable figures on the business size. It appears that Mehner & Maas belonged to the group of small to medium sized ppc printers.
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Mehner & Maas suffered from the decline of the ppc (export) boom. The business was taken over by a Mr. Alfred Faber in 1913. Collotype presses were sold. Mrs. Hedwig Minna Goerner joined as partner in 1920. The firm was now found at Weststr. 81a, renamed into Hindenburgstr. after his death in 1934. The workforce dropped to about a dozen persons in 1921, although M. & M. still had 5 litho and 3 book printing presses. PPC printing was still offered, besides labels, poster etc. until the late 1920’s. The decline of the firm continued but it was in business at least until 1939, with merely two workers left.
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Identification of M. &. M. printed postcards
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The above illustrated logo M & M L was found so far only on a few cards from Egypt. Quite some cards show their full name imprinted and I believe that M. & M. were often also the publishers of these views.
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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.
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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.
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But best for a quick identification is the characteristic M. & M. card / image number, especially the not so common font they used (see ill. please) most of the time. Cards from the undivided era usually show the number on picture side. A view from Italy bears it on the undivided back, however. Perhaps not surprising is that, there is no rule without exception. Some M. & M. cards bear in card/image number in regular Times-like type with stop.
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‘Salut de Constantinople’ Series
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The biggest ppc series printed (also published?) 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. None of my cards shows any mention of local distributors or publishers.
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