The Muppet Show Book was published in 1978 by Harry N. Abrams, Inc. The book adapts material from the first two seasons of The Muppet Show, with illustrations by Tudor Banus.

The main text font used throughout the book is ITC Souvenir. The characters’ names and initials are each set in a unique font, see the image captions for details. A few minor characters’ names are in ITC Souvenir.

“Introduction” is in the roman style of Bookman Swash. The character-specific fonts are Art Gothic for Kermit the Frog; Sweetheart for Miss Piggy; Yagi Link Double for Sgt. Floyd Pepper; Benguiat Laurent (with Psychemat effect) for Dr. Teeth [edit: rather Bullseye, a copy of PLINC Capricorn, see comments]; ITC Neon for Zoot; Crayonette for Janice; and Shatter for Animal.

Second page of the introduction, ft. Interline for Statler & Waldorf (without the pattern fill in Statler’s case); Scorpio/Hoopla for Fozzie Bear; and Burst Caps for Crazy Harry. The sound effects (“BANG”, “HA HA HA …”) are in caps from Caslon No. 471/540 or similar.

ITC Bookman Demi with swash caps

“THE NEW GO-FER” is in Franklin Gothic Extra Condensed.

An outline version of Cooper Black is used for Scooter and Hobo for George the Janitor.

Reward poster for Kid Fozzie, ft. Figaro

The typeface chosen for Rowlf is Reklameschrift Secession.

Moore Computer features for Kermit’s robot doppelgänger.

“GONZO THE GREAT” uses more of the aforementioned Caslon caps. The character font is Lydia.

Sam the Eagle is presented in a chromatic setting of Stripes Caps.

Cloud Bank for Dr. Julius Strangepork and Countdown for Captain Link Hogthrob

The initial I is from Thunderbird.

The initial S is unidentified.

Microgramma Condensed is used for Nigel

The formal script used for “The Lives and Loves of Gonzo the Great” is Typo Script Extended.

Round Rosie is the font used for Vincent Price’s initials … 

… and Smoke is the one chosen for Uncle Deadly.

Dr. Bunsen Honeydew is set in Gemini.

Filmotype Pixie was spec’d for Hilda.

Another Bookman Swash

Manuscript Capitals for “Bein’ Green”

The P from Mira identifies Koozebanian Phoob.

Chianti is used for Robin.

Kermit the Pig is in an unidentified font similar to Rubens and Duerer.

Playbill is used for J.P. Grosse. On this page, the o’s in Scooter’s name are altered to look like his glasses.

The Cottrell & Babcock Manufacturing Company was founded in 1855 in Stonington, Connecticut. In 1880, Nathan Babcock purchased the shares of co-founder Calvert Cottrell and set up a new printing press manufactory together with his nephew George Fenner. Renamed the Babcock Printing Press Manufacturing Company, it was moved to New London. Around 1886, Babcock introduced the two-revolution “Optimus” press. From Steve Fithian’s 2024 article for Otis Library:

The Optimus became the new industry standard for the production of high quality printing. Harper & Bros. of New York used the Optimus exclusively to print their popular and influential periodicals, Harpers Weekly and Harper’s Monthly magazine. By 1899, the company’s strong commercial success allowed for the expansion of the employee base to 250 men occupying 180,000 square feet of factory floor. During the period between 1883 and 1919, the company sold over 7,000 printing presses to businesses in every state of the Union with a global market that included Canada, Mexico, Europe and parts of Asia.

In their Handy Book of Artistic Printing from 2009, Doug Clouse and Angela Voulangas date the advertising card shown above to 1886. All the linework—including curves—were done up in brass rules, along with the metal type fleurons and dingbats. The main typefaces are Mother Hubbard (1885) for “‘Optimus’ Press” and “New York Office” and Latin Condensed (1873) with initials from Ideal (1884) for “The Babcock Printing Press Mfg. Company”. The then freshly introduced Art Gothic (1886) is used with caps from Mother Hubbard for “Drum Cylinder”, “Stop Cylinder” and “Two Revolution”. “Lithographic” and the New York address are set in Old Style Extended (by 1884). There are a couple of unidentified typefaces, including a generic gothic. The inclined sans probably is Gothic Italic (see Halbfette Cursiv-Grotesque).

The colored card shown below followed in 1887. Its design also features Mother Hubbard. The wide typeface used for “Babcock” and, in mixed case, for “Drum Cylinder / Stop Cylinder / Two-Revolution / Lithographic” is Bowl, shown by Farmer the same year.

For both cards A. J. Smith was the compositor, with the printing firm of John P. Smith in Rochester, NY.

From Wikipedia:

Chameleon is a 1972 album by the Four Seasons, notable for being their only album with Motown and the only one featuring Demetri Callas on guitar; Callas had replaced band co-founder Tommy DeVito in 1970 but left in 1974, replaced by Don Ciccone and John Paiva during the band's mid-1970s renaissance. The album met with limited success in the US; no single was issued in America. “The Night”, however, peaked at No. 7 in 1975 in the UK, becoming a Northern soul mainstay.

The uncredited cover design brings together two typefaces that were designed around the same time: the debossed title is in Koster (Dickinson, 1888), featuring a custom cap with long swash and a wavy baseline. The names at the top are in all-caps Skjald (MacKellar, Smiths & Jordan, by 1889).

[More info on Discogs]

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.

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.

Arhoolie Records released this blues compilation in 1972, with songs by Roosevelt Holts and his friends, namely Boogie Bill Webb, Eli Owens, Blind Pete Burrell, and Esau Weary. Of the eleven tracks, all but one were recorded August 1970, in Bogalusa, Clifton, and New Orleans.

The cover design is by Wayne Pope, with photography and liner notes by David Evans. The top-heavy typeface he picked for the title is Secession, which originated around 1900 at the Scholz foundry in Vienna. This provenience shines through in the capital H – it uses the enlarged lowercase form with top bar as found in blackletter typefaces.

[More info on Discogs]

An advert from the early 1940s places the Bonmatí pharmacy at the upperside of the Rambla in Figueres, in the Catalonian region of Girona. Although the pharmacy moved to a new address few years ago, the old signage is still preserved at its original location. At the new address, the Bonmatí family preserves a ceramic sign and the cabinet that was used to store the labels for the pharmacy’s products. Typography and lettering, letterpress and lithography. A few millimetres of paper were used to create small graphic universes to organise the categories of pharmaceutical products.

“Para tomar a cucharadas” and “Jarabe de savia de pino”: Neo Futura (Neufville’s name for Futura Black), Grotesca ancha nueva (Gans), and Antigua Mercedes (Neufville’s name for Tages-Antiqua)
“Uso indicado” and “Uso interno”: Romana estrecha negra (Fundición Tipográfica Nacional)
“Veterinaria” (and also “Fricciones”, “Inhalaciones” etc.): Cleopatra negra (Iranzo)
“Alcohol 96”: Futura (Neufville/Bauer)
“Tintura de Yodo” (and “Alcohol alcanforado”): Futura chupada, Neufville’s name for Futura Condensed
“Agua picrica”: Predilecta (Iranzo’s version of Kristall-Grotesk)
“Limonada purgante”: Grotesca Mercantil (Gans; see Longina)

“Agua de azahar”: unidentified typeface

“A toques”: Bernhard-Kursiv fett (Bauer)

Rows 1–3: Romana estrecha negra (serif) and an unidentified sans
Row 4: Predilecta
Row 5: “Bicarbonato de sosa” is in an unidentified typeface that has several glyphs in common with Roundhead and is also very close to Runic Grotesque (but with asymmetrical T). “Una cucharadita cada 2 horas” is in Venus Bold (Bauer).

Row 1: Fresko a.k.a. Cartoon (Bauer) with Predilecta
Rows 2–4: Antigua Mercedes, Futura, and Cleopatra. The labels in the last row additionally features Grotesca ancha nueva (“Puncem”) and Futura Condensed.

Top left (“Timol”): a local version of Zeitungs-Grotesque (Grotesca ancha by Gans, Grotesca negra by FTN, or Fette Grotesk by Bauer), Venus, Futura chupada negra, Bodoni, and a local version of Copperplate Gothic (Helénica ancha by Gans or Espartana estrecha by FTN)

Top right (“Callicida”): an unidentified wide grotesk, Futura, Venus

Bottom left: both weights of Cleopatra, Futura Italic, Grotesca ancha nueva, and a fine Bowl of Hygieia

Bottom right: Venus and Futura

Lithographic labels by J. Garcia printing house, Barcelona. Most text on these is lettering. The address is added in Cleopatra.

Different styles of lettering

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Letterhead by José de Ros

Josep de Ros was an industrialist from Figueres, Spain, born in the manor house of Les Olives into an aristocratic family. Around 1917, he started a business in the fertilizer sector and opened the Camponal liquor distillery a few years later. He had a warehouse on Vilallonga Avenue in Figueres, near the railway station, close to the border with France. He died in 1935.

In the shown letterheads by Josep/José de Ros from around 1930, the difference between typography and lettering is difficult to appreciate (thanks to the staff of Fonts In Use for the clarifications).

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Detail of the letterhead: “José de Ros / Abonos, cereales y despojos / Figueras”. All three styles are lettering.

The name is in an English script close to Stempel’s Künstler-Schreibschrift, known in Spanish as Inglesa Artista semi-negra, with an ornamented J and a characteristic loop around the stem of the R. Josep de Ros i Moner (father) and Josep de Ros i Reig (son) were descendents of Ros de Olano. In Stempel’s 1918 specimen book for the Spanish market, the name of Ros de Olano is set in Inglesa Artista (it’s misspelled as “Olona”; another page in the same book has the correct spelling).

“Figueras” is drawn in a serif with inline. The structure is very close to the Bravour typeface designed by Martin Jacoby-Boy for Stempel in 1912), but with sharper serifs, and a wider letter U with a small spur. I have made a comparison with the solid Bravour negra and the decorated Bravour adornado (Verzierte Bravour).

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Comparison of the lettered inline caps to the Bravour typeface

From the obituary for the father in La Veu de l’Empordá, 27 December 1919 (translated):

[…] Josep de Ros was from a noble family, from the stately house of Ros located in the town of Les Olives, although the one they owned in this city could also be considered a manor. Among the ancestors of the house are the famous General Ros de Olano, who was a minister of the Crown and commanded an army corps in the African War during the years 1859 and 1860. The last Prior of the Monastery of Santa Maria de Ripoll also came from the Ros family.

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Detail of the letterhead featuring Merveille, Kleukens, and Venus, all by Bauer/Neufville

The Camponal letterhead is typographic: it’s set in the typefaces Merveille, Kleukens-Kursiv and Venus-Grotesk, all by the Bauer type foundry (Merveille originated in the United States under the name Laclede), and distributed in Spain by the Neufville branch in Barcelona. Bauer’s typefaces were the most commonly used ones in Catalonia before the Franco dictatorship (1939). This letterhead helped to locate the forgotten Camponal distillery.

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Label featuring Venus schmal dreiviertelfett, Fette Grotesk-Kursiv, and Clio a.k.a. Kleopatra

The Camponal identity uses other typefaces by Bauer and Neufville, like Antigua Mercedes (the Spanish name of Tages-Antiqua), Bernhard-Antiqua, Fette Grotesk-Kursiv, Carnaby (Marocco), Grotesca Estrecha (Neue enge Zeitungs-Grotesk), Florentiner Mediaeval, and Majestic.

A few typefaces could have been sourced from different type foundries based in Madrid and Valencia, like Clio (Ludwig Wagner, 1903) distributed by Neufville/Bauer as Kleopatra and by Gans as Aurora; or Aurora Grotesk (Wagner & Schmidt, 1908) sold by Gans as Grotesca Ideal and by Fundición Tipográfica Nacional as Grotesca Estrecha.

Typography and lettering also coexist in other elements, such as in the Camponal liquour labels and packaging.

Learn more about Josep de Ros and the Camponal distillery.

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Camponal label featuring lettering (white letters), Kleukens-Antiqua, and Majestic

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Label featuring Kleukens-Antiqua, Venus, and an unidentified typeface (similar to Stempel’s Holzhausen-Antiqua, but with a different M)

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Bottle label ft. lettering, an unidentified grotesk for “Licor de Hierbas ‘Camponal’” (similar to Grotesca Favorita by Gans), and Bauer’s Kleopatra

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Packaging ft. lettering (the reversed letters at the top), Marocco a.k.a. Carnaby for “Cura estómago e intestinos”, Majestic for “G. Garriga”, and other unidentified typefaces

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Camponal ad ft. Bernhard-Antiqua, Universitäts-Antiqua a.k.a Druckhaus-Antiqua, Neue enge Zeitungs-Grotesk, Tages-Antiqua a.k.a. Antigua Mercedes, and others

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Point-of-sale display ft. Columbus, a version of Edel-Grotesk (probably Groteska Moderna by Fundición Tipográfica Nacional), and Schmale halbfette Etienne

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Camponal ad ft. Bernhard-Antiqua, Tages-Antiqua a.k.a. Antigua Mercedes, Universitäts-Antiqua, Florentiner Mediaeval, Kleukens-Antiqua, and an unidentified grotesk

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Address label ft. Etienne Sombreada (Gans’s version of Umstochene Etienne by Schelter & Giesecke), Venus, and Antigua Veneciana (Gans’s version of ATF’s Cheltenham)

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In 1881, brothers Hermann, Gustav, and Wilhelm Schurath opened a paper shop with a bag-making workshop in Leipzig. They added a paper mill in their home town of Brandis, Saxony, in 1883. Fifty-five years later, in 1938, Wilhelm Schurath G.m.b.H. issued this invoice for 2,260 glassine window envelopes with gummed flaps, plus another fifty of second quality.

The design of the invoice features four different styles from a large sans-serif family that went under various names. The company name and location are shown in the bold extended Edel-Grotesk fett a.k.a. Aurora V. All other preprinted text (disregarding the typewritten additions) is set in three weights from the regular-wide Neue moderne Grotesk a.k.a. Aurora I–IV.

Another invoice in SLUB’s Saxonia collection shows that the same basic design was used already in 1936. On that version, parts of the header are set in two weights of Futura, though, resulting in a less harmonious pairing.

According to Frank Schimpke, the company continued to operate as Wilhelm Schurath KG until 1970, when it was nationalized and renamed VEB Verpackungsmittelwerk Brandis.

Ad in LIFE magazine, October 11, 1968

New imaginative styles by Peter Max. Three wild designs to choose from. Repeat alarm wakes you – lets you snooze – then awakes you again. Daring and decorative – great gift.

Every time I come across a Peter Max work, whether it’s a pair of jeans (ad) or the cover of his own magazine—my eyes literally overdose on all the colors and swirling forms. Peter Max is not just another “hippie” artist, rather he’s a kind, caring and loving person who’s influenced a whole generation of artists and people abroad. Even if his name has never crossed your eyes or ears, you’ve probably seen his art somewhere. So many others around the world admire Max and his artwork, although these days it absolutely breaks my heart to see how others treat him in his current state.

Let's move on to something lighter… literally!

From 1968 to 1970, Peter Max was commissioned to design clocks and a poster for General Electric. The poster, advertising some absolutely wonderful wall clocks is set in Millstein Orientale for “New from General Electric” and below, with some Helvetica for the tinier text.

Moving on to the 1970 Snooz-Alarm clocks advertisement which shows Norton Futuramic, a Photo-Lettering face that was issued in the 1940s, paired with Obese E, a Psychedelitype (link two) released in 1967—note that this wouldn’t be the first or last time Obese would be used in Max’s work. Jefferson Aeroplane appears for the Symmetry clock, and Davison Arabesque for the Spectrum clock. Aura is just Futuramic, repeated, and below the three is presented in Futura for the price and bold words, Bodoni for the quoted text.

The actual Symmetry clock uses an illustrated form of Obese, Spectrum uses Art Nouveau-esque numericals not unlike Benguiat Laurent, and the Aura clock uses custom numerals not specific to any phototype… but still looks rad anyway!

Ad in Courier Journal, March 22, 1970

Symmetry

Spectrum

Aura (black version)

Flower Girl

Massimo Pericolo’s debut album was originally released by Pluggers/Lucky Beard in 2019, and reissued by Sony Music in 2024.

Scialla semper means “always relaxed”, hence the choice of pose on the cover. The artist frequently combines themes of crime with moments of very intimate sensitivity.

Künstler-Schreibschrift is used together with LL Corbusier Condensed.

[More info on Discogs]

Michelangelo Poeta: Letto da Vittorio Gassman is a 1964 spoken-word album narrated by Vittorio Gassman and released by Cetra. The album revolves around Michelangelo, his legacy, and his art, which is communicated via songs, poems, and other means.

The title sans is Venus Bold Condensed (or a local copy thereof), used on the front in all-lowercase, contrasted with a bold weight from a version of Neue Moderne Grotesk, probably Nebiolo’s Cairoli tonda nerissima. Below the main part of the design – featuring Studi di figura – is a small subtitle set in what looks like Narciso tonda chiara larga, Nebiolo’s name for the light weight of Edel-Grotesk, and Etrusco Chiaro Stretto. Surrounding everything is Fette Kursiv-Grotesk, which was included in Nebiolo’s Etrusco family as the corsivo nerissimo normale style. Also present on the back cover is a version of Aster with compact descenders for Vincenzo Talarico’s liner notes and Semplicità for the address.

[More info on Discogs]

Billie Davis’s self-titled debut album from 1970 was released by Decca Records. The album is a mix of genres including pop rock, beat, mod, and soul music. Her name is set in caps from Koster

[More info on Discogs]

Zum Jahreswechsel 1914. Gestatte mir hierdurch meinen sehr geschätzten Geschäfts-Freunden die besten Wünsche zu unterbreiten mit dem Ersuchen, das mir bisher entgegengebrachte Vertrauen auch künftighin freundlichst bewahren zu wollen. Hochachtend, Schriftgießerei Eduard Scholz

Translation:

On the occasion of the turn of the year 1914. Allow me herewith to extend my best wishes to my esteemed business friends with the request that the trust they have placed in me to date will be most kindly maintained in the future. Yours sincerely, Eduard Scholz Type Foundry

A politely phrased New Year’s greeting from Schriftgießerei Eduard Scholz in Vienna, set in caps from their Neue Block. This typeface is basically a copy of Berthold’s Reklameschrift Block (1908), but distinguished by smooth contours. Like the precursor from Berlin, it came with a range of alternates and ligatures that helped justify a block of text – see for example the two widths for E in the last two lines. The card also features alternates for F H L T U. The type is framed by two facing griffins – the heraldic animal of printers and typesetters – in sejant erect attitude, holding a pair of ink balls.

Happy New Year! Here’s hoping that it will turn out better than 1914.

Undated poster (c.1970) with the weekly program of Teatar &TD. The logo is introduced with a fine manicule. Stencil is also used for the days of the week. Dates are in Schmale Herold, names of plays in Blippo and Helvetica, and times in Annlie Italic.

Ivo Brešan – Predstava Hamleta u selu mrduša donja, općine Blatuša, 1971. Brešan’s name is in a variant of Broadway, distinguished by closed counters in B, a straight leg in R, a centered middle bar in E, and more small adjustments. I assume this is Roaring Twenties, with modifications [edit: or rather Trio Serie A, see comments]. The title combines Handels-Cursief a.k.a. Elvira, Murillo, a hand-rendered (?) version of Bernhard-Antiqua extrafett (or Lo-Schrift?), and Schmale Herold.

Charles-Ferdinand Ramuz & Igor Stravinsky – Priča o vojniku (L’Histoire du soldat), 1971. The title is in Sea weed, with a custom-added flat diacritic. The names above use all-lowercase Helvetica and all-caps Century Expanded.

Luigi Pirandello – Henrik četvrti (Enrico IV, 1922), 1972. “ITD Galerija” is in Thorne Shaded, “Pirandello” in Smoke, “Henrik” in Sezession, and “četvrti” in Helvetica, again with a horizontal bar as caron.

Georg Büchner – Woyzeck (1836/1913), 1972, with overlayered Thorne Shaded and Torino Italic for “büchner”

Heiner Müller – Filoktet (Philoktet, 1965), 1972. The title uses Roaring Twenties, with giant EndcapS. The playwright’s name is in lowercase Torino Italic.

Peter Nichols – Jedan dan u smrti male Joe (A Day in the Death of Joe Egg, 1967), 1972. Helvetica and Bookman Swash Italic are used for the title and Century Expanded for “Nichols”.

Harold Pinter – Stara vremena (Old Times, 1971), 1973. The geometric hairline caps are from Walter; “Pinter” appears to be in Prismania Thirteen.

Zvonimir Majdak – Kužiš, stari moj starring Mladen Budišćak, 1973. Caps from Schmale Herold are paired with another Berthold release: “majdak” is set in Normande Condensed.

Eugène Ionesco – Lekcija (La Leçon, 1951) / Slobodan Šembera – Vrijeme za gastritis (1971), 1973, with titles in Jim Crow and Baby Arbuckle

Cover of a savings account passbook issued in 1910 by the Städtische Sparkasse München (“Municipal Savings Bank Munich”), today known as Stadtsparkasse München. The monk-like figure is the Münchner Kindl (“Munich child”) from the city’s coat of arms.

“Sparkasse” is set in Aurora, a Jugendstil sans issued by Ludwig & Mayer around 1900. Its round terminals imitate the Quellstift, a monolinear writing tool promoted by Rudolf von Larisch. “Städtische” and “München” are in Woellmer’s Breite halbfette Grotesk@ from around 1892. Zeitungs-Grotesque is used for emphasis.

An advertisement page in an old German book titled Universal Radsport-Karte, published around 1905 by Verlag von Theod. Thomas in Leipzig.

The book includes maps for bicycle tours in Saxony. Dürkopp was a producer of sewing machines, bicycles, motorcycles and cars, founded in 1867 in Bielefeld. The company still exists today under the name Dürkopp Adler.

I found it during the “museum night” in the geoscientific map collection by the University of Leipzig.

While the Dürkopp logo is custom, the wide slab serif with horizontal contrast is a French Antique Extended, probably Breite Italienne from Schelter & Giesecke in Leipzig. The heavyweights at the bottom are (versions of) Zeitungs-Grotesque and Fette Bauersche Antiqua. The last line combines Romanisch halbfett with what looks like Moderne Steinschrift and a condensed roman, possibly Schelter & Giesecke’s Moderne schmale halbfette Antiqua.

Die lustigen Weiber von Berlin (“The Merry Wives of Berlin”) is an opera by Felix Meyer from 1850, borrowing its title from the Shakespeare play. I haven’t seen the interior of this booklet, but judging from the mention of “66 plates” and other works by the publisher, it probably has nothing to do with either, and might rather be an album of humorous and/or erotic images. It was printed sometime before 1913: by that year, Dr. Eysler & Co. had moved from Berlin SW 12 to SW 48.

The cover is by Julius Klinger (1876–1942). The Austrian graphic artist (and occasional typeface designer) was based in Berlin from 1897 to 1915. Compare the design including the textile pattern to his poster advertising Künstlerplakate by Hollerbaum & Schmidt. The latter is from 1912, according to Poster Merchant. Other sources like the MK&G Hamburg date that poster to “ca. 1900”, but that strikes me as early. In any case, the typefaces are older: Gronau’s Reclame-Cursiv is from 1893, and Zeitungs-Grotesque goes back to around 1874.

In 1968, Ella Fitzgerald (1917–1996) was on tour in Europe, possibly with material from her upcoming album Misty Blue. For the concert at Rheinhalle (today: Tonhalle) Düsseldorf on February 8, Günther Kieser designed a colorful poster in DIN A1 landscape format.

For “ELLA” and “’68”, he used a typeface that might have originated around 1899 at the Theinhardt foundry under the name Viktoria. In 1967, Kieser already worked with Viktoria for his Soul Time poster.

In January 2024, Michele Casanova released his open-source digitization under the name DisSenso.

Poster from the collection of the National Library of Norway for an appearance of the circus led by Norwegian wrestler and strongman, Karl Norbeck, with performances that include “Bullpunching”. Someone has written 1900 as a date on the poster, but Norbeck apparently hadn’t purchased his circus until 1904 (the next year with June 23rd falling on a Saturday, as specified on the poster, would have been 1906).

Regardless of its exact date, the poster features a smorgasbord of decorative 19th-century typefaces typical of the typographic styles at the turn of the 20th century – some that were fairly common at the time and others that are much harder to find in historical use. The N in ‘Norbeck’ appears to be upside-down.

The printing credit at the bottom of the poster specifies the source as ‘‘Trondhjem, Lie & Sundts Bogtrykkeri”.

See the related listing at the National Library of Norway.

Full transcription:

CIRKUS VARIETEE.
Brydekjæmpen
Norbeck
Lørdag den 23de Juni Kl. 8 Aften
paa Skøitebanetomten.
Optræden af den
Norske Turner Ole Kristiansen.
Enestaaende Præstationer i Stolpyramide, Trapetz og romerske Ringe.
Mr. Oscardo.
Haandekvilibrist, enestaaende uden Conkurrance.
Hr. Westby.
Nutidens bedste Slangeimitatør.
– Non plus ultra –
Komiker Bøe.
Søskende Westby, Norsk Halling- og Springdans.
– Orginale Dragter og Dans. –
Optræden af den berømte Dumme Peter Balskansky.
Stor Suces fra Akershusfestlighederne.
Hr. Norbeck
giver Opvisning i
amerikansk Køllesving, Løftning.
Løfter Vegt fra 50 Kg. till 500.
Nyt. Bullpunching. Interessant.
Billetpriser: 1ste Plads Kr. 1.00, 2den Plads 75, staaende 50 Ore.
Billetter erholdes ved Indgangen fra 1 Time før Forestillingen begynder.
God Musik.

Ærbødigst
Karl Norbeck,
Direktør.

Trondhjem, Lie & Sundts Bogtrykkeri.