When Bob Silverman designed the jacket for Maurice Yacowar’s book on the comic art of Mel Brooks, he chose Ruby Shadow for the title. He apparently deemed its M to be too tame for the topic. In any case, it got replaced by the sweeping glyph found in another bold 1970s script: the initials are taken from Charade.

Al Elliott’s Charade – a Canadian creation just like the book – did come with a Shadow style. The shadow was customized to match the one in Ruby Shadow, though. Printed in two colors, the alliterating title is combined with what looks like skewed caps from Venus. The all-caps roman at the top is Hess Old Style.

About the book, from the inner flaps:

The critics hate Mel Brooks. But does that stop him? When a Playboy interviewer once remarked, “You've been accused of vulgarity,” Brooks replied, “Bullshit!” No critic could ever stop Mel Brooks from being one of the best-loved comedians in film history—in fact, his movies consistently out-gross (in every sense of the word) those of much-praised Woody Allen. Mel Brooks is funny, and the people love him.

How does he do it? Is he really as crazy as he seems? Maurice Yacowar, whose previous book (on Woody Allen) received unanimous critical acclaim, takes us on a Brooks-lover’s tour through his work on television with Sid Caesar’s Your Show of Shows, his records as the “Two-Thousand-Year-Old Man,” and all of the films from The Producers to Blazing Saddles, from Young Frankenstein to High Anxiety. The resulting tribute will have film buffs nodding their heads nostalgically, and fans laughing out loud on every page.

Mel Brooks turned 100 years old today. Happy birthday!

Device from the front flap. Note the two forms for s in “Madness”.

Tite page. The book’s interior was designed by Dennis J. Grastorf using Caledonia.

Pina Ball celebrates the 120th anniversary of the Pinacoteca de São Paulo. Referencing Lenora de Barros’s work Desmáscara (2025), commissioned for the occasion, the visual identity employs mirrored surfaces that position the viewer within the image.

The typographic composition combines Cochin by Georges Peignot (distributed by Linotype) and Pier Sans by Mat Desjardins (distributed by Pangram Pangram). Cochin is used at large scale and embossed across the mirrored surface, while Pier Sans structures the informational content in black. The contrast between the serif and sans serif typefaces establishes hierarchy and brings together historical references and contemporary application.

Eyes extracted from portraits in the Pinacoteca’s collection reinforce the motif of the mask, creating moments in which artwork and visitor appear to return each other’s gaze. The invitation and mask operate as complementary elements, extending the identity across different formats. The charity ball featured performances by Paulinho da Viola and Amaro Freitas.

Source: pictures.abebooks.com License: All Rights Reserved.

This copy of the first book in the series – first edition, first printing, signed by both the author and the illustrator – is currently offered for no less than $1,250,000 (shipping not included).

Cochin is the typeface used for the Harry Potter series of children’s fantasy novels as published by Bloomsbury in the United Kingdom.

The covers of the seven books were illustrated by Thomas Taylor (vol. 1), Cliff Wright (vols. 2 and 3), Giles Greenfield (vol. 4), and Jason Cockcroft (vols. 5–7). The cover design at least for some books is credited to Michelle Radford.

Source: www.abebooks.com John Atkinson Book. License: All Rights Reserved.

Spines of a full set of first printings of the paperbacks

Source: www.abebooks.com Michal Sawka Rare Books. License: All Rights Reserved.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, Bloomsbury, 2000 printing

Source: www.abebooks.com Michal Sawka Rare Books. License: All Rights Reserved.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Bloomsbury, 2000 printing

Source: www.abebooks.com Michal Sawka Rare Books. License: All Rights Reserved.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Bloomsbury, 2000 printing

Source: www.abebooks.com Michal Sawka Rare Books. License: All Rights Reserved.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Bloomsbury, 2000 printing

License: All Rights Reserved.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Bloomsbury, 2003

Source: en.wikipedia.org License: All Rights Reserved.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Bloomsbury, 2005

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Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Bloomsbury, 2007

West Bubble Gum’s Blockshadow style in bichromatic use for a matchbook by Holiday Inn, probably from around the mid-1970s: the slogan “Get that holiday feeling” was introduced in late 1974 by J. Walter Thompson.

“Get that” is set in squeezed Romana. “The World’s Innkeeper” uses PLINC’s Standard Intermediate Extended, a slightly narrower version of Akzidenz-Grotesk breit on the matchbook shown above. The ones below use the similar Venus Extended.

Front cover with an allegory of Historia and a title in Moderne Versalien

In 1854, three years after London’s Crystal Palace was completed, Munich proudly opened its own Glaspalast, or Glass Palace. Located in the Old Botanical Garden, it hosted dozens of major art exhibitions until its destruction in a fire in 1931 – a fate that the London model would share a few years later.

Shown here is the cover of the catalog to the annual exhibition of 1902 – and a selection of pages with adverts.

Section page for the appendix with adverts – which were handled by Rudolf Mosse. Römische Antiqua is paired with Angelus-Mediäval. The small type at the bottom is Mediäval-Egyptienne or similar.

Greif is a condensed companion to Ludwig & Mayer’s Aurora. It’s here used with various alternates, see for example the two forms for g, s, H and M. In this ad for E.A. Fleischmann’s Hof-Kunsthandlung it’s used together with Breite magere Grotesk.

The ad by Passage Schüssel features Eckmann, a typeface that was ubiquitous in German commercial printing in the first decade of the 20th century. It can here be seen with some of the accompanying Schmuck, or ornaments.

The ad for L. Bernheimer, purveyor to the Royal Bavarian court, mixes several of the aforementioned typefaces, plus Etienne schmal, Schelter & Giesecke’s Etienne, Breite magere Grotesk, a condensed sans (possibly Schelter & Giesecke’s Schmale Steinschrift which originated at Figgins), one of the many German copies of Bradley, and a couple more.

Art dealer M. Wagmüller specified Isis for the name and Römisch for everything else.

More Eckmann (here with long s (ſ)), Angelus-Mediäval, and Greif, the latter used alongside the wider Aurora – for “Photochrom”, with a CH ligature. “Maler” is in Holsatia.

Krause & Finckh promoted their Magazin für bildende Kunst with Georg Schiller’s Neudeutsch.

Back cover with more Römische Antiqua

A connoisseur of M.F. Benton’s work was inspired to combine the capitals of Wedding Text with the classic (not necessarily fitting) American Text. A sprinkling of Bernhard Modern rounds off this stroll through the ATF catalog. (The few bits of Myriad probably were not a deliberate choice, and therefore not worth mentioning).

Most likely, this label has been designed in-house at Sallandt – Alte Münsterländer Kornbrennerei & Liqueurdistillerie GmbH, however I cannot find definitive proof of this (but other labels in their collection look remarkably similar).

Front cover, featuring Allegro (import revision; Ludwig & Mayer, 1936) for Berry’s name and the album title. “With” set in News Gothic (regular; ATF, 1908) or a follower. Catalog number (bold) and “Hi—Fidelity¬ (regular) set in Spartan (Linotype) or similar.

Still of Berry with his guitar taken from his performance in the independent film Rock, Rock, Rock! (1956).

After School Session is rockman Chuck Berry’s debut LP on Chess Records, the label’s second after the compilation/soundtrack album for the film Rock, Rock, Rock! (which Berry and two other Chess acts appeared in, resulting in a still from the movie being used on the cover). The album contained three previous hit singles, with “School Days” topping the Billboard R&B Best Sellers chart – after battling Elvis Presley’s “All Shook Up” in the Jockeys and Juke Box charts for three weeks – and reaching #3 on the Hot 100.

Though uncredited, the cover was presumably designed by Don Bronstein, Chess’ in-house art director from around 1955 to his death in 1968.

Back cover featuring artist and album name in Tempo Heavy (Ludlow, 1931). Smaller text including the track listing (bold with writer credits in regular), liner notes (regular), address (bold) and catalog number and “HIGH FIDELITY” (bold) all seem to be set in Spartan, a follower of Futura distinguished by the two-story a.

Maruxa is a monolinear script much like Veltro (1934), Kaufmann (1936) and Stempel Elan (1936). It was cast by the Spanish foundry of Gans.

By 1958, it was used for a promotional card by Pensão São Jorge, a boarding house on Rua Castilho, 59, in the Portuguese capital:

Lisbon’s very latest. Inn style. Comfortable rooms and suites. Most attentive Restaurant service. Very select, distinguished and cosmopolitan surroundings. First class. Unsurpassed treatment in Boarding Houses.

The geometric sans used for the address and phone number is Grotesca Radio, a follower of Erbar-Grotesk, also by Gans. “Direction” might be in Grotesca mercantil, a version of the design also known as Longina. “English, Spanish and French spoken” is set in caps from an unidentified grotesk. It’s probably one of the numbered “Grotescas” listed in a 1960s specimen by Gans, possibly Número 1362.

The headline mixes Romanisch Kursiv No. 20 with Koch-Antiqua fett. The latter is used with both forms for s, but the former isn’t. The question mark is added from Cooper Black, while the smaller copy is set in Futura.

This 1931 group tours brochure was issued by the MER – Mitteleuropäisches Reisebüro G.m.b.H. – of Berlin. The brochure gives details of organised holiday tours across Europe, by train and ship, as well as an extensive tours of the USA, out via the HAPAG line and returning on the Norddeutschen Lloyd for a cool 2,800 RM. The brochure also has numerous adverts for resorts, hotels and travel companies.

The various adverts, a selection of which I have scanned here, are also interesting from a typographical and design standpoint. Many are in the very latest German ‘style’ and feature some interesting and often relatively new typefaces. This advert, with a variety of typefaces and a decorative border asks “Kennen Sie schon die volkstümlichen Gesellschaftsfahrten des MER?” (“Are you already familiar with the popular group trips offered by MER?”) It gives a list of destinations within Germany and abroad as described elsewhere in the brochure.

MER was formed as a Central European Travel Agency in Berlin in 1917 and grew to include the travel interests of the Austrian and Hungarian railways. Many of its services were similar to those of say, Thomas Cook, in the UK. The company was heavily implicated in the crimes of the National Socialist era and in post-war years the company, in both East and West Germany, underwent several complex reorganisations but survives under the name of DER Travel.

“Shakespeare’s hometown is the quiet, picturesque market town of Stratford-upon-Avon in the county of Warwickshire.” Motor can be seen in early use, featuring a non-standard narrow R.

“Don’t miss a chance to visit Lake Lucerne and its eight mountain railways during your trip to Switzerland”
Two weights of Memphis plus a drop cap from Schaefer-Versalien.

Schaefer-Versalien and all-caps Memphis for “Lucerne Lido, the Swiss lakeside resort”

“Finland – the idyllic land of a thousand lakes. A new travel destination!” More Motor – with a narrow alternate N.

Adverts for the San Marco Schiffahrts-Gesellschaft Venedig and Palace Hotel in Tunis, Tunisia. “San Marco” shows Motor’s narrow N again, and features yet another alternate glyph, this time for S. “Dalmatien” is in Berthold Block. The description of the hotel uses Koch-Antiqua.

Adverts for Jadranska Plovdibda D.D. Sušak and Dubrovačka Parobrodarska Plovidba, with several Futura weights and three sizes of Neuland

Dutch sticker from around 1980, advertising “Stabil Oil for active motors”, using Letraset’s adaptation of Dynamo (1930). The letter I was sliced, turning its semi-seriffed top into a dot.

Exide Industries Limited is India’s largest selling battery company. Their logo features distinct, bold red typography with an integrated blue circular emblem enclosing a white lightning bolt, which represents electrical energy and battery power. This logo is using the Dynamo typeface, which has those fancy serifs, but totally a geometric sans font.

The logo was introduced in August 1995 when Chloride Industries Limited was renamed as Exide Industries Limited.

Romana and Figtree are paired in the visual identity for the 2026 edition of Open Books, Open Minds , a conference by the Association of English-language Publishers of Quebec (AELAQ).

Source: www.flickr.com Uploaded to Flickr by mikeyashworth and tagged with “mikado”. License: All Rights Reserved.

Vol. 2, Ostdeutschland (“Eastern Germany”)

One of a series of six charming small format booklets issued by the Königliche Eisenbahndirektion (“Royal Railway Directorate”) in Altona, Hamburg, and describing the Allgemeine Verkehrs-Mitteilungen und Sehenswürdigkeiten – general railway travel information and sights in the relevant areas of Germany. The organisation of railways in Germany prior to 1918 was somewhat complex but many railway companies were, effectively, nationalised as part of the Preußische Staatseisenbahnen (“Prussian State Railways”) and these booklets all show, in various forms, the Adler or Royal Eagle symbol of the railways as well as the “winged wheel” symbol that was much favoured by various continental railway adminstrations.

The booklets all contain the information that large numbers of visitors were now visiting Germany, many brought by the various steamship lines including Hamburg–Amerika (HAPAG) and the Norddeutscher Lloyd, and given the booklets were issued by the Altona-Hamburg office of the railways one suspects that copies were probably available on board the vessels to be given as publicity to passengers. The booklets were also available by post from the Altona offices. They are not dated but volume one has a manuscript date of ca.1905–07 and given the style this feels correct.

Although each booklet follows the same format each design is subtly different; all are in a loose “Arts & Crafts” style that would morph in Germany into the Werkbund movement and in France to an Art Nouveau style. This includes elements of the cover design, framing and lettering as well as aspects of the editorial text. The booklets contain detachable postcards for mailing and are each printed by a printer in the relevant area of Germany covered by the particular guide.

Volume 2 is for Berlin and Eastern Germany covering areas of Prussia and Saxony. The front cover shows Schloss Marienburg (Lower Saxony), the now lost Wissower Klinken cliff formations on Rügen, and the Brandenburger Tor in Berlin. There are outline maps of the railways in the area covered by the guide as well as of the suburban lines in Berlin. Mention is made of the newly opened first stages of the Berlin Hochbahn (now U-Bahn) and the back cover has a very Imperial series of symbols for the State Railways.

While most booklets (below) have custom lettering for the title, the cover for Volume 2 (above) is typographic: the featured typeface is the wide style of Mikado as cast by the Flinsch foundry in Frankfurt. “Heft 2” is in a German version of Antique No. 8. See the image captions further below for the period typefaces used inside.

At least Vol. 6 was printed by Hans Bleher at Verlags- und Handelsdruckerei Stuttgrart.

Source: www.flickr.com Uploaded to Flickr by mikeyashworth. License: All Rights Reserved.

Vol. 1, Norddeutschland (“Northern Germany”), with lettering similar to Kolumbus. The front cover shows the Lombardsbrücke in Hamburg, the Marktplatz in Bremen, and the steamship Deutschland passing the Alte Liebe lighthouse at Cuxhaven.

Source: www.flickr.com Uploaded to Flickr by mikeyashworth. License: All Rights Reserved.

Vol. 3, Mitteldeutschland (“Middle Germany”) with cover lettering on top of the Imperial Eagle. The vignettes are of the now vanished Kronentempel pavilion at Bodetal in the Harz, the Wilhelmshöhe in Kassel, and the famous Wartburg overlooking Eisenach.

Source: www.flickr.com Uploaded to Flickr by mikeyashworth. License: All Rights Reserved.

Vol. 4, Nordwestdeutschland (“North West Germany”). The cover, along with a steam locomotive and train, is in a rather high ‘Art Nouveau’ style including the lettering, and depicts the famous Kölner Dom.

Source: www.flickr.com Uploaded to Flickr by mikeyashworth. License: All Rights Reserved.

Vol. 5, Südwestdeutschland (“south west Germany”). The cover is almost Guimard in design and shows Heidelberg along with a cartouche of a speeding steam locomotive and train.

Source: www.flickr.com Uploaded to Flickr by mikeyashworth and tagged with “secession”. License: All Rights Reserved.

The title page to Vol. 1 features a winged wheel and text set in Berthold’s Secession (1901). The initial D is from Herkulanum, Schelter & Giesecke’s name for Mayflower (Conner, 1891).

Source: www.flickr.com Uploaded to Flickr by mikeyashworth and tagged with “werk-grotesk”. License: All Rights Reserved.

The introduction to Vol. 5 features a very similar typeface: it’s Werk-Grotesk by Ludwig & Mayer, likewise issued in 1901, with a drop cap from the licht (open) style.

Source: www.flickr.com Uploaded to Flickr by mikeyashworth and tagged with “eckmann”. License: All Rights Reserved.

The title page to Vol. 6 is set in the most popular of the so-called Neudeutsch typefaces: it’s Klingspor’s Eckmann (1900).

Source: www.flickr.com Uploaded to Flickr by mikeyashworth and tagged with “eckmann”. License: All Rights Reserved.

Table of contents for all six booklets as included in the final volume. Note the two forms of H (“Hamburg” vs. “Harz”) and s/ſ, as well as the use of letterspacing for emphasis.

Most of the cover type is set in Erbar-Grotesk halbfett – with the exception of the year 1932 and the house numbers 11 and 12: these are added from Futura fett. Maybe the printer didn’t have numerals in these sizes at hand. The oldstyle roman is Tiemann-Mediäval.

This posts features selected pages from the guide published for the Mitteldeutsche Funk- und Phono-Schau that took place in Leipzig in the fall of 1932, including the front and back covers and a number of interior pages, with infographics and adverts.

We get to see a range of period typefaces, all released by German foundries in the first third of the 20th century. The oldest one among them is Aviso, which appears for the labels on page 23, listing commonly used electrical circuit symbols. Aviso was first cast by Berthold in 1903. The monolinear italic might have been chosen for its similarity to DIN 16, the standard letterforms used in technical drawings. See the captions for more notes on the type.

The printing – and probably also the design – was done by Leipziger Buchdruckerei AG, a local company with ties to the Social Democrats.

The “Central German Radio and Phono Show” was the third major radio exhibition by the Leipzig chapter of the Arbeiter-Radio-Bund Deutschlands (ARB, “Workers’ Radio Federation of Germany”). In the foreword, the organizers write (translated):

Despite the severe economic crisis, the ARB has taken it upon itself to organize this exhibition. Since the last major exhibition (ARA 1928), transmission and reception technology have seen an upward trend that shows no signs of slowing down. This exhibition is intended to be more than just a promotional and sales event. It aims to introduce the layperson to the wide-ranging and fascinating field of radio technology. The technical processes are explained to visitors in a simple manner, organized into educational groups, using models and practical demonstrations. For the ARB, the goal is to familiarize listeners with the technical processes involved in radio broadcasting. The dissemination of technical knowledge is a cultural endeavor that should not be underestimated and forms the foundation for the ARB’s cultural mission.

The inner cover advertises capacitors, transformers and other parts to DIYers who build their own radios. It uses the same typefaces, with a headline in Energos. The monolinear sript was first cast by Schriftguss in 1932, making it the youngest one used in this booklet.

The text typeface is Säculum. Note the use of tracking for emphasis at the beginning of the last paragraph. The heading uses Erbar-Grotesk with a ch ligature and the standard German quote marks.

The ad by Ludwig Fries relies on Erbar-Grotesk’s space-saving schmalhalbfett style.

The electrical symbols, labeled in Aviso

Tables with values for the electrical resistance of various types of wire and the weight of one meter of wire

Ohm’s law and a formula for calculating the power handling capacity of resistors

The ad for radio journal Die Mirag pairs Energos with two weights of Erbar-Grotesk. The copy is in the Zweite Garnitur that is distinguished by a shorter x-height.

More Energos with Erbar and Tiemann-Mediäval for an by Radio-Schnorr. The logo at the top has handdrawn letters.

Schaub’s ad introduces Kreß-Versalien. The arrow was composed from several sorts, see the small gaps between them.

The Telefunken ad on the back cover uses Futura together with Signal. This script typeface was first cast by Berthold in 1931, one year before Energos.

The cover of Archiv für Buchgewerbe und Gebrauchsgraphik 5/1930 was designed by Heinrich Jost (1889–1948), typographer, type designer, and long-time art director of the Bauer Type Foundry in Frankfurt/Main. His illustration of a tree adorned with various heraldic emblems and other symbols is paired with text set in Jost-Mediaeval (with Jost-Kursiv). Interestingly, this oldstyle wasn’t released with Jost’s employer, but with local competitor Ludwig & Mayer. It was first cast in 1927, four years after he started working for Bauer. In 1955, the typeface was relaunched under the name Aeterna.

From the contents (translated from the German):

Essays — Eberhard Hölscher, Berlin: Trademarks and Logos. On Their Origins and Evolution of Form (with illustrations) — Emil Wetzig, Leipzig: The Text Typefaces of the Fifty Most Beautiful Books of 1929 — A New History of the Art of Book Printing — Reviews of New Publications

Supplements — Student works from the State and Municipal School of Crafts and Applied Arts in Hanover

Typesetting and printing by Breitkopf & Härtel, paper by Ferdinand Flinsch, inks by Berger & Wirth, bookbinding by the Fritzsche-Hager Bookbinding Workshop, all in Leipzig.

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Barcelona Step By Step by Bert and Frances Strauss

Barcelona pam a pam is a city guide written by Alexandre Cirici Pellicer (1914–1983) and first published in 1971 by Editorial Teide, with photographs by Oriol Maspons (1928–2013) and drawings by the author. Bert and Frances Strauss translated the book to the English, as Barcelona Step By Step (1974). A version in Castilian Spanish, Barcelona paso a paso, followed by 1975.

Source: en.todocoleccion.net Maria28MM (edited). License: All Rights Reserved.

Barcelona pam a pam (original Catalan version), with Cirici’s name in Akzidenz-Grotesk

Source: srabsenta.blogspot.com Cosas de Absenta (edited). License: All Rights Reserved.

Barcelona paso a paso (Castilian version), with Cirici’s name in Helvetica

All three editions feature the same cover design by Victor Rahola – with the title set on a curve, in A.M. Cassandre’s Bifur – albeit it with different colors for the hat of the man peering in from above. The interior pages are set in Folio and two typefaces by Simoncini: Karlgeorg Hoefer’s Permanent and Francesco Simoncini’s Aster.

Source: archive.org License: All Rights Reserved.

Title page with Folio halbfett and Permanent

Source: archive.org License: All Rights Reserved.

Table of contents in Permanent. The colophon on the left is set in Monotype Grotesque.

Source: archive.org License: All Rights Reserved.

Folio mager for the chapter title “How To Use This Book”, Aster for the text

Source: archive.org License: All Rights Reserved.

Detail with text set in two weights of Aster

Source: archive.org License: All Rights Reserved.

Chapter opening with the number from Folio’s extrafett and the title in the mager.

Source: archive.org License: All Rights Reserved.

Text is interspersed with bits of history that are presented in a smaller size, also from Permanent.

Source: archive.org License: All Rights Reserved.

Spread from chapter 11 on Antoni Gaudí, with one of the photographs by Maspons. The caption is in Aster Italic.

Source: archive.org License: All Rights Reserved.

Detail with text set in two weights of Permanent

Source: archive.org License: All Rights Reserved.

Glossary of special terms

The cover to Volume 1

The Witches’ Marriage is a yuri manga by Studio Headline. Initially published from 2021 to 2023, the series was localized by Yen Press from 2023 to 2024.

For witches, love is power, and to open the Door of Truth— the ultimate goal for any spellcaster—Melissa needs to forge the strongest bonds she can. By now, she’s perfected her routine: marry a naive witch, use her to gain power, and discard her afterward. Melissa’s next target is Tanya, a young girl who’s fascinated by magic and longs to follow in her new mentor’s footsteps. But Tanya has a charm unlike Melissa’s other brides, and her pure, innocent cuteness just might be enough to melt the ice-cold witch’s heart…

The title seems to use Dancing Script, with alterations made in red and white highlights added to replicate the style of the Japanese logo. Stars replace the tittles in the i’s. The author name uses Bodoni Bold. The header and numbers on the Contents page are set in Bernhard Modern, while the chapter titles use Aclonica. The letterer for the manga is Bianca Pistillo.

The Japanese volume 1 cover. The English title is set in Cochin Bold.

Teaser poster

From Wikipedia:

Kiss of the Spider Woman is a 1985 drama film directed by Héctor Babenco from a screenplay by Leonard Schrader, based on the 1976 novel by Argentine author Manuel Puig. [...] Set in a Brazilian prison during the military dictatorship, the film centers on a dialogue between two very different cellmates, a hardened leftist revolutionary (Julia) and an apolitical gay man (Hurt). The story utilizes metafictional and film-within-a-film elements, as the latter regales the former with retellings of an old movie, whose themes mirror those of the characters.

The poster artwork is by Richard Mahon.

The primary font on both posters is Newport, with a modified K in “KISS”. On the main poster, Erbar Bold Condensed is used for the associate producers’ credits.

Main poster

Source: www.flickr.com Uploaded to Flickr by Alan Mays and tagged with “belgian”, “broadgauge”, “glyptic shaded”, “old style extended”, “fashion”, “cloister”, and “french clarendon shaded”. License: All Rights Reserved.

This is a nineteenth-century advertising trade card for John P. Schaum, gas fitter and plumber, whose business was located in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. The other side of the card features an illustration with a rabbit and flowers.

Chandeliers, Coal Oil Lamps, and Gas Fixtures.
Stoves, Heaters, and Ranges.
Gas Fitting and Plumbing.
John P. Schaum,
No. 24 South Queen Street, Lancaster, Pa.

The featured typefaces include Belgian (Bruce, 1867) and Fashion (Farmer, 1876). Most of the typefaces come from the catalog of MacKellar, Smiths & Jordan in Philadelphia. This includes Broadgauge (a foundry version of a design previously seen in wood as Antique Tuscan Extended, 1869) French Clarendon Shaded (1871), Cloister (1873), Glyptic Shaded, Caxtonian (both 1878), and Kitcat (1883). The grot on the back is a version of a design that was known in Germany as Moderne Steinschrift.

Source: www.flickr.com Uploaded to Flickr by Alan Mays and tagged with “fashion”, “kitcat”, “caxtonian” and “french clarendon shaded”. License: All Rights Reserved.

Source: archive.org License: All Rights Reserved.

McNeil Bros. was a San Jose printer specializing in labels. Their 1885 catalog, Specimens of Druggist Labels…, is an explosion of eccentric type and ornament in fancy frames, offering hundreds of examples of artistic printing from the real world. This label combines seven very different display faces. The shaded ornaments pair well with the title type, Italic Copperplate, a design so elaborate it could be mistaken for custom engraving.

Source: archive.org License: All Rights Reserved.

Italic Copperplate shown in MacKellar, Smiths & Jordan’s 1891 catalog.

Most of the type in the McNeil Bros. shop was likely procured from the largest local foundry, Palmer & Rey in San Francisco. The company didn’t originate many (if any) type designs of their own, but they did supply the West Coast with novelties from Cincinnati, New York’s Conner, and Philadelphia’s MacKellar, Smiths & Jordan, all of which are represented on this label.

Source: archive.org License: Public Domain.

Pen Text, as shown in Palmer & Rey’s 1884 catalog (printed the year before the McNeil Bros. book that features the above label). In this copy of the specimen book held at the University of California, someone tried sketching a few characters in the ronde script style.