When we learned about women printers from Victorian times, I mentioned that Austrian compositor Wally Prohaska worked with a business partner – Anton Halauska.
Anton’s work was quite prominent in the pages of the Printers’ International Specimen Exchange. It was punchy. Just look at this bangin’ self-portrait:
That textured border is made using a technique Anton invented – Selenotype.
Anton was born on May 19, 1852 in Olmütz (Olomouc in Czechia). His father was the University’s printer and also called “Anton”. Here is an online scan of an 1853 book printed by Anton Senior (you can find more of his books at the Olomouc Research Library).
In addition to being a printer, Anton’s father ran a bookstore in Olmütz. In the year 1861, the bookstore failed and his business went bankrupt. That’s a risk that every businessman takes on. But what’s unusual is what his father did next: He lied to his creditors, pretending that he got a fresh cash investment into the business to keep it going.
English translation (from Chat GPT)
A Warning.
A domestic colleague received a summons from a notary in Olmütz dated May 17 of this year, instructing him to appear on June 3 as a creditor of the printing and book business of Anton Halauska in Olmütz, or to secure his claims through a representative.
On the same day that this summons was issued, a printed circular from A. Halauska, dated May 18, arrived. In it, he declared his suspension of payments while at the same time announcing that business would continue with new strength and under more favorable conditions. This was supposedly possible because “Mr. Fleischmann in Olmütz, who is known as a capable businessman and has significant capital at his disposal, had agreed to become his business partner.”
Since further details about the aforementioned Mr. Fleischmann were unknown, it was stated that Mr. Fleischmann was willing to provide further information if requested via Mr. Braumüller in Vienna.
Believing that an amicable settlement was preferable to legal proceedings, the recipient of the circular from A. Halauska was inclined to trust its claims. However, as a precaution, he contacted Mr. Braumüller with the request for confirmation regarding Mr. Fleischmann, based on the statements in the circular.
Mr. Braumüller was courteous enough to reply, stating that he neither personally knew the aforementioned Mr. Fleischmann nor was he in a position to provide any details about his financial situation. Furthermore, he had already distanced himself from the circular and requested a public retraction of the statement that referenced him.
In the meantime, this correspondence resulted in the registration deadline being postponed to June 3.
The simple presentation of these facts clearly shows that A. Halauska’s circular had no other purpose than to deceive creditors, keeping them calm while preventing them from asserting their claims at the right time. Otherwise, what purpose would such a registration deadline or the recommendation from a highly esteemed colleague serve?
Such self-serving conduct does not require further commentary. It is not merely a duty but a necessity to warn against it!
F.
This lie confused and delayed his creditors in asserting their claims. It bought Anton Sr. an extra month’s worth of time to get back his stock, which was seized by the authorities. Following this episode, in 1869 the whole family decamped to Waidhofen on the Ybbs.
Anton Jr. served one year in the army, and went on to get an eclectic education which included becoming a master stenographer (publishing a book about the subject). Afterwards, Anton wished to found his own print shop in Salzburg but was denied permission. He went on to establish one in the nearby Austrian town of Hallein with with Wally Prohaska – with doors opening on December 15, 1882.
Anton was an “Artistic Printer“, which means that he worked at the cutting edge of print design. Here is an example of Halauska’s printing:
In 1883, a year after establishing his business, Anton’ father passed away at the age of 70. Anton himself will not live to such an old age.
In Hallein, Anton invented the textured printing effect of “Selenotype”. For that and other contributions to print, he received permission to use the imperial eagle in his coat of arms and seal.
In 1888, The British Printer ran a profile of Halauska, shown below. At this point, the talented Austrian printer’ fame has reached England.
The complimentary profile above says that Wally and Anton founded Halauska’s printing works in 1882. But, somehow, ten years later Anton celebrated the 25th anniversary of the business. Was it a little case of “fake it ’till you make it” to boost his reputation?
In 1888, Anton and Wally were awarded a Bronze Medal and Honorary Diploma at the German National Arts and Crafts Exhibition in Munich (as reported in “Buchdrucker-Zeitung” and listed in the official record)
Later, in 1893, Halauska travelled to the World’s Columbian Exposition (“The World Fair”) in Chicago to represent his country.
In 1896, Anton married Augusta Mang in Munich. Augusta was the daughter of the Royal Bavarian cellarmaster.
According to a Jan. 27, 1906 issue of the Hallein Volksfreund, Halauska’s printing house carried on business in Hallein up until 1895. The business apparently moved to Hallein from Zell am See, and Anton claimed to operate in both locations. In 1896, the press finally moved to Salzburg – the original town where Anton wanted to base his business. Notably, Anton published the calendar “Der Bote aus dem Salzachthale” and “Technisches Jahrbuch für den Buch- und Kunstdruck” – a “technical yearbook of book and art printing” with examples produced mostly by Anton himself.
A short 3 years after getting married and moving to Salzburg, Halauska died from an illness. He passed away on the 8th of November, 1899 at his home at 9 Giselakai in Salzburg (source). He was 47 years old.
In 1900 you start seeing references to “Buchdruckerei von A. Halauska’s Witwe” which is the “Printing house of A. Halauska’s Widow”. Augusta may have restarted the business for a while with a partner named “Eiblhuber” or may have simply used the Haulaska name to give endorsements to print equipment manufacturers.
Research resources:
- Links to Austrian domestic & expat newspapers
- Oldnews.com was great for doing text searched through OCR’d documents. Hint: the full digitized document is often available for free outside Oldnews.
- More digital docs at the Austrian National Library.
- Digital Library of the National Library of the Czech Republic
- Olomouc Research Library
- Halauska search at the Salzburg Museum
- For more about Anton Halauska Sr. (in Czech)
- An example of Anton Senior’s printing work: Der Soldat Im Felde, by Hauptmann
- There’s also an academic article about Anton Sr. in Czech called “Olomoucký tiskař Anton Halauska, aneb, ze Seničky do světa”, by Stanislava Kovářová. In Střední Morava. — ISSN 1211-7889. — Roč. 14, č. 26 (2008), s. 123-128
- Here is an example of Anton Halauska’s printing: “Zwei Beiträge zur salzburgischen Geschichte / von J. Widmann” (1897) – (and a local PDF backup)
Apparently there is a book about Salzburg printers, that covers Anton Halauska’s business: Josef Dumler’s Beitrag zur Geschichte des Salzburger Buchdruck- und Zeitungswesens.
Did you find this page useful? Did your own research in German? Wrote a related blog post? Reach out to me by email at jacob at this site!
