Fonts from the Flea Market #1450

“Goodbye Mama” by Ireen Sheer (b. 1949) was a top five hit on the German singles chart. A year later, the German-English singer represented Luxembourg at the Eurovision Song Contest 1974, finishing fourth (the winner that year was ABBA with “Waterloo”).

The single sleeve for Sheer’s 1973 hit shows her in front of Nymphenburg Palace. The Art Nouveau typeface is Fantaisies noires, originally issued by Peignot & Fils in Paris by 1900. Reed in London (and later Stephenson Blake) had the design under the name Macaulay. Ludwig Petzendorfer reproduced a glyph set in his Schriftenatlas, Neue Folge. About seven decades later, Typesetting chain Typeshop made a phototype adaptation using the British name. It was probably this version that was used here.

[More info on Discogs]

The first page of a large 480-page catalog advertising goods offered by Feldheim, Gotthelf & Co., an Australian importer of “British, Continental and American Merchandise”. Founded in the 1850s, the company entered a period of growth starting with a new warehouse in 1892. This catalog, published around 1905, offers an extensive window into essentially the entire breadth of goods available to Australian households at the time. The company entered a period of decline a few years later due to partners retiring from business, and in 1924 began the process of shutting down the company which concluded in 1927.

The catalog is set in a smorgasbord of period typefaces. The shown page features Facade for the company’s name, followed by Maltese Shaded, Condensed Sans Serifs Italic (see Condensed & Elongated Sans Serifs), Grotesque No. 4A, and Reed’s Runic Extended (for “Sydney”). “On Sale” is in DeVinne Ornamental and the list of items in De Vinne. The caps used for the name and location shown integrated in the red border are from Concave. Some of the typefaces used for smaller text are yet unidentified.

This song book by the Heils-Armee – the German branch of the Salvation Army – must have been issued sometime around 1900. The title page mentions Thomas McKie, who served as Kommandeur for Germany from 1894 to 1901. The booklet was edited by Jakob Junker, operating from the Army’s National Headquarters at Blücherplatz 1 in Berlin-Kreuzberg. Junker also published Der Kriegsruf, the German edition of the Army’s official news bulletin, The War Cry.

The title typeface circulated in Germany under various names including Kirchen-Gotisch and Pfeil-Gothisch. It originated in the United States, though, where it was first cast by MacKellar, Smiths & Jordan in 1870 and sold as Fancy Text. “Bereite dich vor deinem Gott zu stehen” (“Prepare to meet your God”, Amos 4:12) is set in a Fette Fraktur. “Berlin” is in a Breite Kanzlei, and the address in a Midolline; more precisely, Magere Midolline as cast by Woellmer. “Nachdruck verboten” is in a standard fraktur, see Normal-Fraktur. The price is shown in Normande.

The title page features Fancy Text and Normal-Fraktur, too. There’s also a condensed grotesk and an oldstyle roman (“Mediäval” in German) which are a tad too generic to pinpoint.

Via Norman McKnight, who comments:

I bought this card because of the variety of type faces and languages, Armenian, Arabic & French.

The typeface used for the name in Latin letters and the French job title (“Négociant – Commissionnaire” – “Merchant – Commission agent”) is the light weight of a design that went under various names. The left-leaning advertising face originated at Wagner & Schmidt, a punchcutting company in Leipzig that sold matrices to numerous foundries. Those would then cast the designs and typically sell them under different names. In Germany, Stempel and also Ludwig Wagner and Weber carried both weights as Helvetia. Bauer had it as Favorit-Zirkular, Genzsch & Heyse as Caprice and John as Corona. In France, Beaudoire and Peignot & Fils sold it as Helvétiennes and Turlot as Batardes Renversées. In England, Stephenson Blake and Harrild & Sons offered the light weight under the name Engadine and the bold as (Reed’s) Waverley. For more names, see the typeface page.

The upright script used for the place name – “Alexandrie (Egypte)” – is a Ronde, probably of French origin. The specific version is unidentified. For similar fonts that are digitally available, see French 111 (a.k.a. Gando), ITC Redonda, Bon Mot NF, Typo Upright, and the linked related typefaces on those pages.

The Arabic and the open and shaded Armenian are likewise unidentified. If you have any insights into their names, please share in the comments.

From Ohio History Connection:

Dated 1885, this broadside advertises dry goods and other items, such as hats, caps, boots and shoes, overalls, ladies’ and children’s hose, notions of all kinds, glass and queensware, crockery, wooden-ware, iron-ware, etc., sold at discounted prices from February 1, 1885–March 4, 1885, in honor of President-elect Grover Cleveland, at Calvin & Frazier in Lena, Ohio.

The typographic design opens with a big “LOOK HERE!”, printed from a wood type version of French Clarendon. The other larger lines are set in Antique Tuscan Extended (“Cash or Trade“, “DRY GOODS”), Gothic Round (“COME AND SEE”), and Bailey Shaded (“OUR WELL SELECTED STOCK!”). Most text is set in a sans of narrow proportions, possibly Gothic Condensed No. 5. There’s also a Clarendon/Ionic and a few more unidentified typefaces.

Homegrown is the fourth extended play (EP) record by American rapper Lil Debbie, released on July 31, 2015 independently. The EP features Wiz Khalifa, Paul Wall and Bricc Baby.

The artist logo uses either lettering or lettering derived from a yet unidentified typeface [edit: It’s Fancy Text, see comments]. The track listing and featuring artists are presented in capital letters of Big Caslon.

A. W. Davis, manufacturer of carriages, wagons, and sleighs. No. 1523 North Salina Street, Syracuse, N.Y.

“Carriages” is set in caps from the original version of Raphael, an original design by the Central Type Foundry from around 1885. The interior shading was removed when Raphael was revived in 1974 at Compugraphic. The Tuscan with open shade used for “A. W. Davis” is Ornamented No. 1513, c. 1854, later also known as Bailey Shaded. The other typefaces on this business card from ca. 1900 are unidentified.

Notice at Ricardo’s Cafe, Canberra, featuring three freebies: Mexcellent 3D, Coffee Tin (see Clarendon Ornamented), and Tejaratchi (see Octagon Gothic Condensed Shaded), stretched.

One of Gail Anderson’s first projects as Creative Director of Design at SpotCo, a NYC-based advertising agency that focuses on the entertainment industry.