Tuttlingen, Michael Birk, ca. 1920. Large 4to (28.7 x 20.7 cm). Four section titles on red paper; 290, xxxi pp.; 26 plates, all but six in full colour (of which several double-sized), with additional colouring in silver and gold. Embossed full limp cloth. Spine with title in black and gilt; front board with ornamental early Art Deco bands, gilt title, gilt vignette and mounted b/w engraved views; rear board with large, gilt and black vignette. Grey endpapers.

A richly illustrated and wonderfully preserved - near mint - catalogue of the BIRK Cardboard Packaging Company, which was founded over 130 years ago. The text is in German, English, French, and Spanish. The firm, which still exists, was founded in 1879 by the master wainwright Michael Birk and his wife Maria, and in the early years it made cases for harmonicas of the famous Hohner brand, from Trossingen, Germany. Round the turn of the century, the firm expanded to produce a wide of the range of high-end packaging, including paper and cardboard shipping and storage containers, and cardboard for consumer products, especially for drugstore and pharmacy supplies, tobacco, personal care products, confectionery, and, later, glass bottles and jars for pharmaceutical and clinical supplies. Between the two world wars, export trade expanded and major sales offices were established in Mexico and South America. The firm started selling medical equipment through their catalogue, as shown here. Today, their largest clients are still from the medical technology industry located in and around Tuttlingen in Swabia, southern Baden-Württemberg, near Switzerland. The town is the home of more than 600 surgical equipment companies. Fifty percent of the world's surgical equipment is manufactured there. A large segment of this catalogue shows surgical instruments and other medical devices, fewer show packaging material, but the full-colour plates show an enormous variety in packaging designs made for other companies and their medical products. The 31 Roman-numbered pages contain indexes in each of the four languages mentioned above, each on differently coloured paper. Minimal wear to board edges; small paper flaw in the right margin of the first text leaf; otherwise a fine copy - as new.