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Otto Zahn
Master
Bookbinder
... Historic
Bookbinder of the S. C. Toof Co. |
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Before his death in 1928, Otto Zahn had taken his place as one
of the finest bookbinders in America as well as an outstanding
figure in the entire bookbinding world. He was
born in Berka, Germany, the son of a Protestant clergyman and
was fortunate in receiving a good education which placed him
in a small bindery where he learned the bookbinding process of
folding, sewing, binding, and finish. Afterwards he set
out on world travels where he found his way into some of the
best shops of Germany, Italy, Egypt, Switzerland, France,
England, and the United States. He arrived in America in
1883, settling down in Memphis in 1884. In Memphis, Otto Zahn found employment with S. C. Toof & Company. It
wasn't long before he began wining prizes in National and
International bookbinding expositions. At
Toof, he became Foreman,
Superintendent, General Manager, Vice President and in 1918
President of the Company until his retirement in 1923. The
Toof firm and Otto Zahn were highly respected. Virtually nothing else is
known about Otto Zahn, the man. His books are his
legacy. |
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Otto Zahn
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Click on small
photos to see an enlargement |
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| Otto Zahn |
Otto Zahn |
Otto Zahn
- Overton Park |
1891 S.C
Toof Co. |
Otto Zahn
vault |
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Otto
Zahn was an excellent horseman and is said to have ridden his
horse, Kitty, to work every day. The back of the postcard
is shown because it contains a sample of Zahn's writing and his
signature. |
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1920 Otto Zahn
postcard - Front and Back |
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Fine
decorative bindings always had a great attraction for Otto Zahn, and
he made their
characteristics of historic styles his special study. All the
decorative elements and ornamentation of all historic periods were
stored up as his own property. He became
famous for a particular type of hand-tooling as well as
replicating hand-tooling in European styles of bindings.
He was a master of a personal style of polishing that was not
duplicated by anyone else. A strength of Zahn's finest
bindings is that the covers of his books could be opened to
their fullest, even back to back, and without the
slightest crack. |
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In addition to his position at S. C. Toof, , Otto Zahn operated
another bindery in Memphis under his own name - The Zahn Bindery. |
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Otto Zahn Chronology
Born:
March 3, 1856 Berka, Germany.
Died:
May 5, 1928, Memphis.
Buried:
Forest
Hill Cemetery - Abby Mausoleum
Immigration:
December 7, 1883.
Port of
Departure:
Amsterdam, Holland.
Port of
Arrival:
New York, NY.
Ship:
Zaandam
Memphis: S. C. Toof & Company:
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1887-1889 . Bookbinder
1889-1899 . Foreman Bindery
1899-1902 . Superintendent
1902-1911 . General Manager
1911-1919 . Vice President
1919-1923 . President
1923 . Retired as President |
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Awards:
London Exposition
- 1st Prize 1893, Grolier Club, NYC - 1897, St. Louis
Exposition - 1st Prize in binding 1904
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Memphis
Home Addresses:
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1887
. 221 2nd Street
1888
. 292 Front Street
1889-1893 . 75 Adams
1894
, 96 Monroe
1895-1902 . Clarendon Hotel
1903-1909 . 239 Wellington (305 S.
Wellington in 1905)
1910
. 185 Poplar
1911-1914 . 111 N. Montgomery
1915-1924 . 200 Union Avenue (Heritage Apartments)
1925-1928 . No Listing |
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S. C. Toof
& Company |
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The S. C. Toof & Company printing business was founded
in 1864 by Canadian born Stephen C. Toof, who had started out
as composing room foreman for the Memphis Daily Appeal.
His brother-in-law, W. H. Bates became a partner in 1900.
In 1913, they hired architect G. M. Shaw to design a downtown
building for their production and administrative facility.
It was designed in the architectural style of the Chicago
School, utilizing new technologies of steel-frame construction
with masonry siding and plate-glass window areas. The
style also limited the amounts of exterior ornamentation.
In 1982 the building was added to the National Register of
Historic Places. Located adjacent to AutoZone Park, it's
been vacant for some time, but plans are underway to develop
the building for apartments. |
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S. C. Toof & Co |
S. C. Toof Building |
S. C. Toof Building |
S. C. Toof |
Toof
home 1891 |
S. C.
Invoice 1941 |
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The Toof Company is the oldest printing company in
Memphis, and is still in business as "Toof Commercial
Printing". They relocated to
670 S. Cooper in 1965. In July 2013, they merged
with Digital Printing and the new name is Starr Toof
Printing Company. |
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Credits |
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The
Historic-Memphis website does not intentionally post copyrighted
photos and material without permission or credit.
On
occasion a "non-credited" photo might possibly be posted because we
were unable to find a name to give credit. Because of the nature of
our non-commercial, non-profit, educational website, we strongly
believe that these photos would be considered "Fair Use. We have
certainly made no monetary gain, although those using this website
for historic or Genealogy research have certainly profited. If by
chance,
we have posted your copyrighted photo, please contact us, and we'll
remove it immediately, or we'll add your credit if that's your
choice. In the past, we have found that many photographers
volunteer to have their works included on these pages and we'll
also do that if you contact us with a photo that fits a particular
page. |
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The "Historic-Memphis" website would like to acknowledge and thank the
following for their contributions which helped make this website
possible:
Memphis
Public Library, Memphis University Library, Memphis Law Library,
Memphis Commercial Appeal, Memphis Press Scimitar, Shelby County
Register of Deeds, Memphis City Schools, Memphis Business Men's
Club, Memphis Chamber of Commerce, Memphis City Park Commission,
Memphis Film Commission, Carnival Memphis, Memphis Historical
Railroad Page, Memphis Heritage Inc, Beale Street Historic District,
Cobblestone Historic District, Memphis Historic Districts, Vance
Lauderdale Family Archives, Tennessee State Archives, Library of
Congress, Kemmons Wilson Family, Richard S. Brashier, Lee Askew,
George Whitworth, Woody Savage and many individuals whose assistance is
acknowledged on the pages of their contributions. Special
thanks to Memphis Realtor, Joe Spake, for giving us carte blanche
access to his outstanding collection of contemporary Memphis photos.
We do not have high definition copies of the photos on these
pages. If anyone wishes to secure high definition photos,
you'll have to contact the photographer or the collector.
(To avoid any possibility of contributing to SPAM, we do not
maintain a file of email addresses for anyone who contacts us). |
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