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.

The Chuck Wagon Gang’s album Rejoice was released in May 1969 on Harmony Records. It is a gospel/sacred music album, as evidenced by the inclusion of the track “I’m Rejoicing”. On the cover, Baby Fat is used for the title while the band name above and the song list below are set in Lining Gothic. Cover photography by Ira Friedlander, who may have worked on the typography as well.

[More info at 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

The album showcases Stradivari Strings’ easy listening style with a touch of jazz and incorporates percussion, specifically “Ping Pong Percussion”. It is a stereo recording at 33⅓ RPM. Two Filmotype fonts are in use with Rodgers and Wasp beginning and ending half of the title while the artist name is set using Lining Gothic

[More info on Discogs]

C. F. DRURY for Latest POST CARDS

C.F. Drury was a printer and publisher in Southport, England, north of Liverpool. This advert for postcards was probably printed around 1900, based on the featured typefaces. Regina-Kursiv is the youngest of the four: it originated in 1895 at the Berthold foundry. It was also sold in the UK, including by James Marr and Co. in Edinburgh.

W. R. Cheney
Carriage Builder.
Repairing and Repainting Done Promptly.
Cor. Grant and Christian Sts.,
Lancaster, Pa.

William R. Cheney (1859-1932) was a blacksmith and carriage builder in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

For a similar Cheney business card by the same job printer (Pluck Print), see W. R. Cheney, Carriage Builder, Lancaster, Pa. See also a handbill for Carriages, Wagons, and Sleighs Repaired—Cheny's Repair Shop, Lancaster, Pa., ca. 1890.

The typography features Hansard caps set on a curve, French Oldstyle with larger initial caps, Archaic paired with R initials from Pynson, and Dante.

This is a promotional poster/card for an event with “Magnus Hirschfeld, one of the earliest and most influential advocates for gay rights, speaking at the Dill Pickle Club in the early 20th century.” As seen on Newberry Library’s wonderful Tumblr. There is no year on the card, but Heike Bauer dates it as 1931.

The library describes the Dill Pickle Club as a “Bohemian Chicago social club, founded by former labor activist Jack Jones in 1916, to provide an unconventional meeting-place for the uninhibited and free-thinking, including Socialists, atheists, anarchists, liberated women, lecturers and soap-box orators, artists, actors, playwrights, literary figures, etc.”

The poster is composed entirely of type. Hirschfeld’s name is set in a wood type style offered by many manufacturers, often with the name Clarendon Italian. Oddly the period in "Prof." is hovering well above the baseline.

“HOMOSEXUALITY” is set in what appears to be the 60-point size of the Gothic Condensed (No. 47) series, which can be difficult to identify because its design varies so much between sizes. (This is the first time that type series has been documented here on Fonts In Use.)

The wider sans-serif is Lining Gothic, and it appears the typesetter either had a shortage of apostrophes, or they didn’t notice (or care about) the use of a single open quotation mark as an apostrophe in “Europe‘s”.

The last line with the date and address is Alternate Gothic No. 1.

E. Oettel, Philadelphia Reliable Fancy Bakery and Confectionery.
All kinds of Cakes, Pies, Creams, Water Ices, and Home Made Bread.
No. 506 Manor Street, Lancaster, Pa.
Special attention given to wedding and party orders.
Stands at Eastern, Central, and Southern Markets.

An elaborate business card printed by David Bachman Landis of Pluck Art Printery (later known as Landis Art Print) in the late nineteenth or early twentieth century.

The wavy, wiry vertical lines that Landis used to separate the “Special Attention” section on the left from the main “E. Oettel” portion of the card come from a set of “Capital Ornaments” dated 1891 that was available from the Barnhart Brothers & Spindler (BB&S) type foundry. Landis also used these separators in a number of other printed pieces. See, for instance, the following examples:

• Charles S. Frantz, Graduate Ophthalmic Optician, Watchmaker, and Jeweler, Lancaster, Pa.
• A. H. Herr, Mill Creek Dairy, Lancaster, Pa.
• J. M. Trout, Fire Sand Quarries, Landisville, Pennsylvania, ca. 1890s

BB&S also sold a set of “Brownies” characters that included the tiny owl in the upper left-hand corner.

Typefaces: Duerer (“Fancy Bakery and Confectionery”), Pynson (“All kinds of Cakes, Pies, Creams, Water Ices, and”), Hansard (“Home Made Bread”), Dante (“No. 506 Manor Street”), and Old Style Bold (“Lancaster, Pa.”). The unidentified typeface used here for “E. Oettel” appears to be the same as the one selected for “J. M. Trout” on the J. M. Trout, Fire Sand Quarries card [edit: it’s Eclipse Shaded].

A poster for the New York 1927 Machine-Age Exposition. While much of the typography is set in gothics such as Gothic No. 578 (for “119 West”), Gothic No. 122 (for “New York”, cf. the R in the 24 pt size) and what appears to be ATF’s No. 545 (see Lining Gothic), Gothic No. 545, Cooper Black is used for “Exposition”. “Machine-Age” is in an unidentified crude grot.

Font Review Journal shows this poster in its review of the Cooper family.

Jacket design for a book about transits, an astronomical term that refers to planet movements. In this astrological context, it’s about planets that move across one’s “natal planets”.

The title of the book uses American Uncial, whilst the remainder is set in right-aligned Gothic No. 545, see Lining Gothic.

1889. “Registro” uses a typeface related to French Oldstyle, while “Atti di Morte” is in a version of the design later known as Bruce Mikita, which was sold by Italian foundry Società Urania as Pekino. “Parte I” is (similar to) Lining Gothic or Interchangeable Gothic.

These are cover pages from the Salerno, Italy death certificates, "Atti di Morte," from between 1889 and 1901. I found these during research into my Italian heritage, and they were too cool to not share.

1892. “Registro” uses Mortised, patented by Hermann Ihlenburg for MacKellar, Smiths & Jordan in 1884. The bifurcated Tuscan caps with outlined shade used for “Atti di Morte” go back to Henry Brehmer’s Ornamented No. 1540 for Bruce (1876). “Anno” is set in a style like Old Style Bold. “Degli” and the body copy might be Mediäval-Egyptienne (similar, but without beard on G: Old Style Antique).

1901. “Il Presidente” and “Il Giudice Delegato” use a style known in the U.S. as French Antique/Clarendon Extended.

1909. “Atti di Morte” is a version of Zeitungs-Grotesque, which was sold in Italy by Reggiani (as Turandot) and by Nebiolo (as Etrusco nerissima). “Ufficio” is in Washington.

1917. “Atti di Morte” is set in De Vinne Bold (cf. this specimen by Barnhart Brothers & Spindler)

A handbill extolling the virtues of the Singer Vibrator, which was advertised as a "new" sewing machine in newspapers and magazines beginning around 1888.

David Bachman Landis of Pluck Art Printery (later known as Landis Art Press) printed this piece.

Before buying a sewing machine, it will pay you to call and examine
The New Singer Vibrator!
You will find it the lightest running and simplest constructed machine in the market.
A full supply of needles, oils, and parts for all sewing machines.
Repairing promptly attended to.
Singer Manufacturing Co., Stevens House Block, No. 4 South Prince St., Lancaster, Pa.
Chris. Myers, agent.
Pluck Print

“The New” uses caps from a French Antique/Clarendon Extended, and “Before buying” appears to be Latin Antique. “Singer Vibrator” is No. 500, which was first shown as wood type by William H. Page in 1890. “Lightest Running” is Egyptian Extra Condensed, while “Needles, Oil and Parts” is set in Pynson. There’s also a Ionic, Old Style Bold, as well as five more typefaces that have not been tracked down yet.

These turn-of-the century catalogs from a publisher of Yiddish sheet music take a maximalist approach to Victorian-era typography. There are 12 typefaces on the page by my count, some of them only used for one or two lines of text.

The Hebrew Publishing Company was founded by Joseph Werbelowsky in 1900, and published Jewish books, religious materials, and sheet music, becoming one of the most successful Jewish publishers in New York of the early 20th century. At the time, “Hebrew” was the preferred term for anything Jewish, and the Hebrew Publishing Company published materials in Yiddish and English as well as Hebrew. Much of the Yiddish in America then was printed in a very Germanized orthography — especially egregious here are the umlauts in “König” and “Schöne” (standard kinig/kenig and sheyne). This iteration of the catalog is taken from the back of their Potpourri of selected Hebrew melodies, a medley of 12 dance melodies and Hasidic nigunim arranged for piano.

Detail ft. Bradley, Quaint, and Ronaldson.

Detail ft. Facade (“Min Hameizar”) and De Vinne (“Homon der Zweiter”).

Detail ft. French Clarendon (“Kol Nidre”), Jenson Old Style (“arranged by”), and Fullface Italic (“Voice and Piano”).

Many pages in the Eaton’s Fall & Winter 1907 Catalogue, including the one titled “CANDY SECTION”, have their titles in a very round and simple looking font – Gothic No. 545. An interesting detail is seen in the top right corner, where the word “filled” (set in Times Gothic) makes use of a ligature in an otherwise widely spaced word.

The “MEN'S OVERCOATS” page draws a lot of attention to the center list of prices, giving the numbers a lot of weight in comparison to the product descriptions.

George Gershwin’s Porgy & Bess, featuring Lawrence Tibbett and Helen Jepson. RCA Camden Records (CAL-500), USA, 1959. Photo by Mike Tabb. The typography brings together Page’s No. 120 with ATF’s No. 545, see Lining Gothic.

[More info on Discogs]

A Halloween party ticket, probably dating to the first decade of the twentieth century.
— Alan Mays

“Hallow Eve Party,” By the Young Men’s Society of 1st M.E. Church, at Iris Club Building, No. 323 North Duke St., Friday, October 30. Tickets, 10 cts. Pluck Print.

Among the fonts in use are Duerer (1880s) and Abbey Text (1895). The latter is very similar to Bradley (ATF, 1894) and perhaps based on the same lettering by William H. Bradley. There are at least two more unidentified typefaces. If you recognize them, let us know in a comment!

“Mark Twain” and Other Folk Favorites is the debut album by Harry Belafonte, released by RCA Victor in 1954. Design/illustration by Ed Kysar, pairing Latin Wide with ATF’s No. 545, see Lining Gothic.

[More info on Discogs]

Mono release

This is another one of my favorite album covers. The color scheme, layout, positioning of the lettering, it all fits with the exclamation-“pointed” album title. Like another posting I submitted, (Four Tops — Reach Out) the typeface used here has been dogging me for years. Is this Haettenschweiler as I was told, or is it a variation? It looks suspiciously close to Permanent Headline and yet, the ‘t’ doesn’t quite link up with that typeface (or maybe I’m just being too picky!) Any help on identifying this typeface would be greatly appreciated.

Cover design by Harry Webber, with photography by Frank Dandridge.

[More info on Discogs]

Stereo release

Source: ephimeros.tumblr.com Image via Norman McKnight. License: All Rights Reserved.

Norman McKnight of Philoxenia Press in Berkeley, California writes:

“While visiting the Portland, Oregon paper show a few years ago I located a small trove of printer’s samples or unused pharmacy stock for a local druggist in Walla Walla, Washington. … I later found this long, thin envelope measuring 2.25 x 9 inches. Its use is unknown, but it would have been restricted by its measurement; perhaps to package a thermometer. … The additional traits de plume above & below the text unit are a nice touch showing how much the printer cared to enhance his work. This is job printing at its finest. The printing is raised, i.e. the ink was dusted with a powder which, when placed in a small oven for the purpose, caused the ink to rise slightly. This was the economical answer the the tactile way in which copperplate engraving imparted elegance.” — Ephimeros

The lettering, background, and torn paper effect are all produced by an unusually elaborate typeface called Stipple by the most prolific 19th-century designer of ornamental type, Herman Ihlenberg. He patented it in 1890, and Mackellar, Smiths & Jordan showed in their 1892 catalog, below.

Source: archive.org MacKellar Smiths, & Jordan, 1892. License: Public Domain.

Ihlenberg produced nearly 100 decorative typefaces from the 1860s to around 1905. Many of them are impressively detailed, but Stipple is as clever as it is ornate. The genious of the design is not in its variety of spacing material or left/right endcaps (just one option for each character in each size), or even in the way each character’s border organically aligns; the best trick is the busy background pattern that appears random and masks the seams where each piece begins and ends. Once the font is set properly, it isn’t immediately obvious to the reader that letter, background, and border are all part of each metal block. Only repeating characters give the structure away.