ABSTRACT
Another graphic, a label marking samples of textile products for sale (Figure 11.2), presents what we might call the signature of a
11.1 Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Chair. US Patent 1,791,453, filed 4 August 1928, and issued 3 February 1931
designer, “o.b.” (for the initials of former Bauhaus weaver Otti Berger), and the corporate manufacturer, “Schriever.” Within the trademark’s center, two horses mirror one another, and in the elliptical frame three words identify, at once, the medium’s material properties (horsehair), its process of manufacture (doubleweave), and its legal status (subject to a “D-R” [German] patent). Below that, text specifies the size of the fabric (“130 cm”), the sample’s number (“37”), and the color (in this case, “752 schwarz”). Thus, within this label, the medium’s identity, its properties, converge with the signifiers for the designer’s and the company’s intellectual property.
