Bonds and Shares Designed in the Art Deco Decorative Style

Bonds and Shares Designed in the

Art Deco Decorative Style

One of the most rewarding parts of our work at Art Deco Collection is meeting collectors whose passion and dedication to preservation inspire projects that go well beyond ownership alone. Many of these individuals are driven not only to build remarkable collections and environments, but also to share their knowledge in thoughtful and lasting ways. These are the special stories we are proud to feature in the Art Deco Resource Guide Journal, because they reflect exceptional vision, deep personal commitment, and a genuine desire to preserve, document, and honor ideas that deserve recognition and study.

When we think of Art Deco today, we most often imagine interiors, architecture, lighting, furniture, or the finely crafted objects that defined the domestic and public environments of the interwar period. Yet the visual language of modernism was not confined to salons, theaters, and exhibition halls. It extended deeply into the administrative and commercial mechanisms that supported everyday economic life.

During the early decades of the twentieth century, bonds, share certificates, and other financial instruments were issued in vast numbers by corporations, municipalities, transportation companies, banks, and industrial enterprises throughout Europe and beyond. Intended primarily as legal documents, these printed securities nonetheless became carriers of contemporary design. Often designed by an artist (indicated by “DEL delineavit” = drew it / “facit/fecit” = made it / “Inv. invenit”, Latin: invented, freely translated made/created/drawn it / pinxit “painted it” (pingere: to paint, decorate, depict), the image was then transferred to the stone or printing plate, engraved by an engraver (”grav., Grav.” engraved, engraving, engraving / ”Sc./SC.” sculpsit = engraved it) and thus, in the end, the securities were printed in a special printing house (“Imp. Imprimerie/Imprimeur” = printing house/printed by). These documents often featured the same geometric structures, stylized typography, allegorical figures, and industrial motifs that were also found in architecture …

In this way, financial documentation became an unlikely but revealing surface upon which the ideals of modernity were expressed. Industry, electrification, transportation, and technological progress were translated into pattern, composition, and ornament. What began as instruments of investment now survive as artifacts of graphic design history.

Nearly fifteen years ago, German collector Jürgen Weritz contacted us regarding a specialized archive he had assembled over several decades. Since beginning his work in 1985, Mr Weritz has focused on historically issued bonds and share certificates distinguished by their adherence to the visual vocabulary of the Art Deco period.

At the time, and still today, this category falls somewhat outside the scope of the functional decorative arts we typically present. However, the design qualities of these documents place them firmly within the broader material culture of modernism. Mr Weritz’s collection offers a compelling view into how corporations, municipalities, and industrial firms adopted contemporary graphic strategies to convey stability, innovation, and economic optimism during a period of rapid technological change.

The examples presented here represent a selection drawn from his archive. Organized thematically rather than by issuer or country of origin, they illustrate the range of stylistic approaches through which Art Deco aesthetics entered the commercial sphere.

In many of these securities, visual elements traditionally associated with decoration take on new communicative roles. Transmission towers become linear motifs. Dams and factories are rendered as stepped architectural forms. Typography is treated not merely as information but as identity, often dominating the composition in the same manner as cinema signage or department store branding of the period.

Borders originally intended as anti counterfeiting devices evolve into repeating geometric systems reminiscent of textile patterns, metal grille work, or interior paneling. In other cases, allegorical figures survive from earlier artistic traditions, but are transformed through elongation and abstraction into emblems of production, energy, and industrial labor.

The following groups demonstrate how the graphic language of Art Deco permeated the administrative documents of modern commerce, transforming instruments of finance into expressions of technological optimism and institutional authority.

Within the Weritz archive, industrial subject matter emerges as one of the most consistent visual themes. Hydroelectric infrastructure, aviation networks, railway systems, and electrical generation facilities appear repeatedly as compositional focal points. These are not presented as literal topographical records, but as idealized constructions rendered through the graphic conventions of the period.

Factories are depicted with tiered rooflines that echo the setback profiles of contemporary skyscrapers. Transmission pylons are abstracted into rhythmic vertical elements, suggesting both structural clarity and ornamental intent. Locomotives and aircraft, stripped of extraneous detail, become streamlined emblems of velocity and mechanical efficiency.

In this context, the corporate issuer is visually aligned with technological progress. The investor is invited to interpret participation in the enterprise as an investment in modernity itself.

Letterforms on these securities frequently extend beyond informational necessity into the realm of visual branding. Company names are articulated in stylized block scripts, often integrated directly into the architectural framework of the design.

Stepped baselines, radiating line work, and symmetrical alignment transform typographic elements into structural anchors within the composition. In certain examples, the issuer’s name occupies the upper third of the document with a scale and emphasis comparable to commercial signage or cinema marquees of the same decade.

While ornamental borders originated as safeguards against duplication, many certificates in the Weritz Collection demonstrate how these functional devices were adapted to reflect contemporary design sensibilities. Guilloché patterns evolve into interlocking geometric systems, their repetitive logic mirroring developments in textile production and architectural surface treatment.

These framing devices serve a dual purpose. They protect the integrity of the instrument while simultaneously situating it within the visual language of modern commerce. The document thus becomes both a secure financial document and a carefully designed object, embedded in the contemporary visual identity of the company (“Corporate Design/Identity” even in the 1920s and 1930s!)

Although unified by a broadly shared visual vocabulary, the securities contained within this group reveal distinct regional interpretations of Art Deco design. French municipal and infrastructure bonds often retain elements of classical allegory, presenting figures derived from Marianne or personifications of the Republic alongside stylized depictions of ports, bridges, or electrical networks. These compositions tend to emphasize civic continuity, merging traditional symbolic authority with modern industrial ambition.

German industrial issues, by contrast, frequently adopt a more reductive graphic language. Here, figural representation gives way to structural clarity. Typography assumes greater compositional prominence, and architectural or mechanical motifs are rendered with an economy that reflects parallel developments in modernist design movements active during the same period.

Certificates issued in Central Europe demonstrate yet another approach, combining decorative framing devices with industrial vignettes that reference mining, metallurgy, or manufacturing. In many such examples, ornamental systems coexist with machine derived imagery, suggesting an ongoing negotiation between inherited decorative traditions and emerging technological identities.

Taken together, these regional variations illustrate how the formal language of Art Deco could be adapted to communicate local economic priorities while maintaining a consistent association with progress, efficiency, and institutional confidence.

In their original context, bonds and share certificates were designed to communicate credibility, permanence, and institutional authority. Yet as demonstrated by the examples preserved within the Weritz Collection, these instruments also participated in a broader visual project. Through engraving, typography, and symbolic imagery, they articulated the aspirations of an industrial society invested in progress, coordination, and technological advancement.

Today, divorced from their financial function, these documents endure as expressions of corporate identity rendered through the design language of the interwar period. Their compositions echo the same geometric order and stylized optimism that informed contemporary architecture, furnishings, and decorative objects.

As such, they invite reconsideration not merely as historical records, but as integral components of the Art Deco visual environment. Whether examined as works of graphic design or presented within modern interiors, they affirm that the aesthetics of modernity extended into every dimension of commercial life, including the instruments through which that life was financed and sustained.

We extend our sincere thanks to Mr. Jürgen Weritz for providing the images and research that have informed this feature. For additional information regarding this collection or to direct any inquiries, Mr. Weritz may be contacted via e mail at weritz@di-r.de

Additional Securities by Country

The following images present additional bonds and share certificates organized by country of issuance. Some countries include more examples than others, so if you see only a few images there may be more in that set; click any image to open the full set for that country.

Journal & Collections