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

This is an acquaintance card that dates to the late nineteenth or early twentieth century.

For another card that uses the same illustration and red border, see May I C U Home This Eve? (featuring Souvenir and Bowl).

Will you allow me [the] Pleasure of your sweet Acquaintance?
Miss ________
Yours Truly. Please Answer.
Franz W. Olson

The fairy-tale blackletter is Herman Ihlenburg’s Bradley from 1895. “Miss” is set in Royal Script, a formal script cut by Gustave F. Schroeder for the Central Type Foundry by 1887. The oldest typeface on this card is the other script used for the sender’s name: it’s Spencerian Script, patented by Richard Smith for MacKellar, Smiths & Jordan in 1878. “Yours Truly” and “Please Answer” is hand lettering.

Indigo Park logo

Indigo Park is a 2024 indie horror mascot game developed and published by YouTuber Mason Myers, better known as UniqueGeese.

The first chapter of the game features the protagonist Ed, who entered Indigo Park and encountered Rambley the Raccoon, an AI mascot.

The Indigo Park logo consists of two parts: while “PARK“ is in Gill Sans, the “Indigo” part is either based on an unidentified typeface, or entirely custom made. Empirical Italic is a little similar. The older variant of the logo can be seen in the opening cutscene, where it’s using some version of Bradley – a font that’s also used by Disneyland. Fonts used in the user interface include DCC Sharp Distress Black, used only for the main menu title and Oswald. Subtitles are in Quicksand.

The Indigo Park menu

Rambley is confused as to why the door mysteriously locked.

A still of the opening cutscene featuring the older variant of the logo, mimicking Disneyland’s, using Bradley.

For Michael Cunningham’s revised versions of classic fairy tales, illustrator Yuko Shimizu added a furry texture to the late 19th-century blackletter face Bradley. She also made the illustrations for the inside of the book. Cover (art direction and typography) by Rodrigo Corral.

Two freshly graduated female students hold their diplomas up in the air while looking at the viewer, with one exposing a naked leg. For those who consider the combination of the image with the subtitle “A Report Card on the Love Generation” too vague, a row of clip-art-like images has been added below the film title, detailing what the viewer will be seeing: some romance and no shortage of fast and motorized machines.

On the IMDb website, the film is summarized as “one for forgiving fans of 70’s counter-culture flicks” by user Red Barracuda:

For me, some films get by almost exclusively on their early 70’s era vibes. The Young Graduates is such a movie. [...] It’s not particularly strong in the story department but for what it’s worth it revolves around a teenage girl who starts an affair with one of her teachers; later on, her and her friend set off on a road trip where they encounter various stock and trade characters of the day.

The typefaces are trendy choices. Harry (1966) was released a few years before by VGC for setting headlines on their Photo Typositor machines. Bradley was published as a typeface by ATF in 1895. In the 1960s and 1970s it lived a second life along numerous other “novelty” typefaces of the late 1800s, after they were made available for phototype and/or rub-down lettering.

[More info on IMDb]

An advertisement for a “Seeing Seattle” car by the Seattle Electric Company, published in the Westerner, vol. 3 from 1905. The topmost line appears to be set in Post Oldstyle Roman, featuring its characteristic slanted S, slanted O, and long-tailed R alternates alongside the default forms of the latter two. The ad copy reads:

To see Seattle and its suburbs, take a ride over the Seattle Railway System of the Seattle Electric Company in their new observation cars. On of these cars makes a three-hour trip daily over various lines, leaving Second Avenue and Pike Street at 2:00 P.M. Two distinct trips are run on alternate days, making it possible to view all points of interest in two days’ “touring.”

The website of the Special Collections at University of Washington Libraries provides this contextual information:

In 1901, the Seattle Electric Company owned all 22 of the city’s streetcar lines. In 1919, the city of Seattle purchased the entire streetcar system for $15 million, forming the Seattle Municipal Street Railway.

The Rivals Of Dracula: A Century of Vampire Fiction, 1977. The two a’s from Bradley with their pointed terminals nicely echo the vampire’s fangs. [More info on ISFDB]

Printed in blood-red, Bradley unfurls its creepy qualities on the covers for a paperback series of horror anthologies. The three volumes were published by Corgi Books in 1977/1978, with cover art by the great surrealist artist John Holmes. Bradley brings the gothic feel of blackletter to the table, without the legibility issues of proper fraktur or textura faces. Secondary copy is set in Futura Bold and Extra Bold Condensed.

See also Bradley in use for Andy Warhol’s Frankenstein (1973) and for Interview With The Vampire (1976).

The Rivals of Frankenstein: A Gallery of Monsters, 1977. The ascender of Bradley’s k was trimmed to enable a compact setting without overlap. [More info on ISFDB]

The Rivals of King Kong: A Rampage of Beasts, 1978. Bradley here is used with descending capitals.
[More info on ISFDB]

The “Blue Ribbon” walking cultivator ad (1900) features Bradley (1895) for the title, De Vinne Condensed (before 1894) for the text on the left, and an unidentified Scotch roman for ‘WALKING CULTIVATOR’.

The Rock Island Plow Company (founded in 1855) produced a wide variety of cultivators over the years (1870s–1920s), amounting to an intriguing collection that “is nearly as staggering as their plow selection”, as described on their website.

To be honest, I’m no Bram de Does, with a dual interest in typography and agriculture, and so my interest in their selection of cultivators is marginal at best. But of course, what did catch my eye were the beautiful product listings from 1900 to 1903, printed in dark blue, and sporting a myriad of compelling typefaces.

The “Blue Ribbon” walking cultivator ad shown above features Bradley (1895), a typeface based on 1894 lettering by Will H. Bradley (revived by David Jonathan Ross in 2018 as Bradley DJR). The text “Handsome and Good.” is set in De Vinne Condensed (before 1894).

See the captions for additional typefaces identified in the images below (note: two typefaces remain unidentified). For more cultivator advertisements of the Rock Island Plow Company, have a look at the company page.

The “Dictator” cultivator ad (1900) sports Old Style Extended (1892) for the title. The serif typeface on the right side is Jenson Old Style (1893).

In the “Good Luck” cultivator ad (1900), the title “Good Luck” is set in the quirky Atlanta (1886), the text “Riding Cultivator” is set in De Vinne (1892), and the text underneath—excluding the company’s name—is set in De Vinne Condensed.

Here is another variant of the “Good Luck” cultivator ad (1900). Set entirely in Jenson Old Style (1893); the small text (“The Best of All.”) seems to be set in something like 14pt Jenson Old Style, while the title is set in something like 24pt Jenson Old Style—hence the more refined appearance of the title.

For the “Queen” cultivator ad (1900), a combination of Bradley (1895) and Jenson Old Style (1893) was used.

“The Nabob” cultivator ad (1900) features Old Style Extended (1892?) for the title, Jenson Old Style (1893) for the text on the left, and an unidentified grotesque at the bottom.

The “Defiance” cultivator ad (1900) is set entirely in Jenson Old Style (1893).

The “Veteran” cultivator ad (1903) is set in Jenson Old Style (1893), and an unidentified condensed grotesque.

The “Buford” cultivator ad (1903) is set in Jenson Old Style (1893) and Blanchard (1900) for “The ROCK ISLAND”. ‘The’ is from Blanchard Italic (1900).

And finally, the “Autocrat” cultivator ad (1903) is set in an intriguing semi-sans typeface (i.e. a sans-serif with the contrast and some other featured borrowed from transitional and didone typefaces) [edit: it’s Courts, see comments], and an unidentified serif typeface for ‘COMBINED RIDER’ & ‘AND WALKER.’ [edit: It’s Howland]

Interesting to note here is that the first R in ‘RIDER’ takes on a very different form than the other two; it looks like Jenson Old Style might have been used for that initial letter.

Ad for the Töchter-Pensionat Luisen-Institut in Bad Kreuznach, 1906

Two illustrated print ads for boarding schools from 1906.

The one shown above is for the Luisen-Institut in Bad Kreuznach (then in the Kingdom of Prussia’s Rhine Province) – an “excellently recommended finishing school for daughters” offering “thorough scientific and domestic training in addition to solid education” with the “opportunity for exams in handicraft and language as well as higher teacher’s exams”. The annual fee of 900 ℳ included access to the big garden and brine baths.

The headline is set in one of the German versions of Bradley, without ch ligature, underlined and with lowered caps. “Luisen-Institut” is in a Fette Schwabacher (with double hyphen), “Töchter-Pensionat” in a Breite Gotisch, with single hyphen and ligatures for ch and ſi. The copy is set in a generic Fraktur, with Schwabacher for emphasis. The only roman type is the fat face used for highlighting the principal’s name.

The advert shown below is for another Pensionat in Gotha (then part of the Duchy of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha). It plugs the “beautiful villa with big garden” and its “certified in-house instructors from Paris and England”, and promises “excellent teaching and preparation for the Prussian teacher’s exam”.

The design features several of the typefaces mentioned above, in different roles. Breite Gotisch is here used for the biggest line, accompanied by the number and “Penſionat” in Eckmann-Schrift. Note that Eckmann came with dedicated glyphs for the Roman numerals Ⅰ Ⅴ Ⅹ that were different in design from its capital letters I V X. Bradley appears for the principals’ names, with ſ (long s) and ü.

Ad for the Pensionat Gotha III, 1906

Die deutsche Dichtung der Gegenwart: Die Alten und die Jungen (“Contemporary German Poetry: The Old and the Young”) is a book first published in 1897. This is the “third, improved edition” published by Eduard Avenarius, Leipzig in 1900. It was written by Adolf Bartels (1862–1945), whose history of German literature –

was marked by racist evaluations and rabid antisemitism; it became a pioneering work for National Socialist literary reviews. According to Bartels, even authors whose names sounded Jewish, who wrote for the “Jewish press”, or who were friendly with Jews were “contaminated with Jewishness”. The noblest task of völkisch cultural policy would therefore be a radical de-Jewing of the arts, and thus the “salvation of National Socialist Germany”.

The cover design doesn’t give away the vile antisemitism of the content. It looks like many other German books published in this period, featuring the typical elements of the Jugendstil period, with borders and ornaments, depicting owls (symbolizing wisdom) and flowers. The typeface is one of the many German copies of Bradley, originally designed by Herman Ihlenburg based on lettering by Will H. Bradley and produced by ATF in 1895. Several foundries in German-speaking countries named their version Amerikanische Altgotisch (“American Old Gothic”), acknowledging the design’s geographic origin. Others including Berthold in Berlin and Haas in Switzerland dropped the adjective and simply called it Altgotisch. Here it’s shown embossed in gold, with a period after each line, and dots to justify shorter ones. The publisher’s credit is set with descending capitals.

The title page exhibits the uncoordinated mix of typefaces from various blackletter subgenres that was so common in Germany in the late 19th and early 20th century (and detested by the Modernists). The largest line is in an unidentified compressed gotisch with ornamented initials. “Die” is in (a) Neue Schwabacher, “Die Alten und die Jungen” in a generic gotisch similar to Original-Gotisch or Courante Gotisch. The typeface chosen for the author’s name is similar to Bismarck-Gotisch. “Dritte verbesserte Auflage” uses a Fette Gotisch, and the publisher’s name is in a Normal-Fraktur.

From the collection of the National Library of Urugay, as collected on La Patria:

Casino Montevideo
Hoy Martes 11 de Febrero de 1908
Sorprendente
Nuevo Programa
por el
CELEBRE CANTATE
LEROY
Todo el mundo
Al Casino!
ESTRENO
Por el biografo – La emaciante vista
EL VIEJO CAJERO
Esplendido Espectáculo

The poster announces a show by “the famous singer Leroy”, presenting a “surprising new program” at the Montevideo Casino. Translation and (un)identified typefaces follow below:

“Casino” — French Antique/Clarendon Extended
“Calle Florida” — (a) French Clarendon
“Telephone“ — a Fat Face
“Montevideo” — not yet identified
“Today Tuesday February 11 1908” — Columbus
“Surprising New Program” — Bradley
“for the famous singer” – (a) French Clarendon
“Leroy” — This eccentric sans serif is similar to Ronaldson Gothic, Stephenson Blake’s Arabian and Sezessions-Grotesk – more even in ABC Type’s version named Text Gothic (2004).
“All the world to the Casino!” — Columbus
“PREMIERE”— Columbus
“By the biographer – The emaciating sight” — Boutique
“The Old Cashier” – a yet unidentified squarish gothic.
“Splendid Show” — Antique Extended (light).

Bayerischer Bauernvereins-Kalender für das Jahr 1926 (volume 21).

From circa 1904 to 1933, the Zentralstelle der christlichen Bauernvereine (“Central Office of the Christian Farmers’ Associations”) in Regensburg published a richly illustrated annual calendar.

The title page design of the issues for 1912 (volume 9, shown below) and 1926 (volume 21) are largely identical. A decorated initial B is combined with the title set in Bradley. This face was known in Germany as Amerikanische Altgotisch, among other names, and is also used for the publisher’s name. The line with the year features Morris-Gotisch or one of the other German copies of Morris Troy, with numerals from Römische Antiqua. It’s framed by flower ornaments. The red top line with the volume information uses Original-Gotisch for the 1926 issue. In the older one, this line appears to be set in Mediaeval-Gotisch or Psalter-Gotisch, which are versions of Tudor Black. This typeface can also be seen in use for the printer’s credit in both issues.

The periodical included a Läutordnung (rules for the ringing of church bells), weather lore, hagiographies, a market calendar with a directory of all market places in Bavaria, and more. [Schlegl] It was printed by G.J. Manz in Munich.

The Bayerischer Christlicher Bauernverein was the regional association of the local farmers’ societies. “It saw itself as a middle-class agricultural interest group and, unlike the Bayerischer Bauernbund, did not act as a political party. Nevertheless, the Bauernverein played an important role in the political Catholicism, as it was ideologically and personally closely associated with the Zentrum and, from 1918, with the Bavarian People’s Party. During the Weimar period, the Christian Farmers’ Association had up to 150,000 members, with Georg Heim (1865–1938) as the central leader.” – Oliver Braun

Bayerischer Bauernvereins-Kalender für das Jahr 1912 (volume 9), with a frontispiece by Martin Feuerstein, depicting Louis the Saint bringing the Crown of Thorns to Paris.

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”).

1st Edition, Alfred A. Knopf, 1976.

Jacket designer R.D. Scudellari was not a stranger to gold metallic inks and papers. Here he employs a sufficiently spooky and antiquarian Bradley for the first cover of Anne Rice’s debut blockbuster, Interview With The Vampire.

2nd Printing, Alfred A. Knopf, 1992.

Page with classified ads for German North Sea resorts and the respective ferry connections, from the Reise- und Bäder-Anzeiger (“Travel and spa gazette”) in Reclams Universum, a weekly magazine printed and published by Philipp Reclam jun. in Leipzig, 1909.

While the title (“Deutsche Nordseebäder”) shows some clunky lettering, the ads themselves are set in a range of jobbing typefaces that were in fashion at the time. The credit line at the very bottom is the only occurence of a fraktur. The single display face that can be classified as blackletter is Bradley, see “Wyk Insel Föhr”. The actual font in use is probably Altgotisch or one of the numerous other German copies of Bradley.

“Wangerooge” and “Westerland-Sylt” both combine Viktoria (AKA Phönix, Medea) with an enlarged and lowered initial W from Siegfried. Another interesting face is the one used for “Wittdün”: It appears to be the solid version of Alexandra, which in turn appears to be Berthold’s bichromatic copy of Washington (Central). The use of all caps for emphasis is limited to “Borkum” (Romana) and “Juist” (Fette Bauersche Antiqua or similar).

Head of the Reise- und Bäder-Anzeiger with lettering modeled after Eckmann, including a fancy highlight version. The smaller text is set in Sorbonne-Circular, an italic with swash caps that was part of Berthold’s recutting of Cheltenham.

Ad by Menck & Hambrock, “a German manufacturer of earth moving and ramming equipment and once one of the world’s leading companies”, founded in 1868. [Wikipedia]

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With the imminent closure of Playboy’s flagship magazine in the news, here is a set of matchbook covers for The Playboy Club, the related chain of nightclubs that have already been closed for some time.

The matchbook for each club shows its related city name in a different unique typeface, including several uncommon typefaces that haven’t been recorded on Fonts In Use before. The accompanying Playboy branding uses a condensed version of Melior. All the settings appear to be from Photo-Lettering.

Assuming all the different matchbooks were printed around the same time, the opening and selling dates of the Great Gorge club – 1971 and 1981, respectively – would mean the covers are very likely from the 1970s (as if the funky design style wasn’t already enough of a clue). One could probably get a more accurate date by cross-referencing the different opening and closing dates of each club and/or the dates each typeface was available.

The matchbook images are from the excellent archive of 20th-century ephemera shared by Jordan Smith (a.k.a. Cardboard America) on Flickr.

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Newspaper ad for a chaise longue named “Victoria”, from 1906.

Extend your life through healthy sleep on chaise longue bed “Victoria”. Price from 16.50 Mk. Over 20,000 pieces sold. Indispensable for every household. D.R.G.M. №37159.
High elastic spring pad, head and foot part adjustable. Many recognitions. Brochures about patent furniture, patent mattresses, bedsteads, adjustable wedge cushions, table beds etc. free and post paid. Nippe & Pasche, Berlin, Oranienstraße 101/102, formerly Leipzigerstraße 73.

The headline and the company name are set in the Extended style of Bradley. ATF offered a special cut to their German-printing customers named Ihlenburg, which is distinguished by the inclusion of umlauts, long s (ſ), eszett (ß), descending z, as well as the (then) obligatory ligatures for ch, ck, tz. The font used in this ad, however, is probably not Ihlenburg Expanded, but one of the several German copies. These included Altgotisch breit (Gebr. Klingspor), Britannia-Gotisch fett (Bauer, Klinkhardt), Kloster-Gotisch fett (Flinsch), Mammut-Gotisch (B. Krebs Nachf.), and Original-Gotisch (Ludwig Wagner).

The copy is set in a standard Fraktur, see Normal-Fraktur, with a Halbfette Kanzlei used for emphasis. Among digital fonts, Mars-Fraktur and Kanzlei halbfett klein (both by Gerhard Helzel) are probably the closest matches.

Another ad from the same year uses Antiqua (i.e. roman, incl. sans-serif) type.

This Bradley use makes me happy.
The bold album art is counterbalanced with information set with light weight capitals, using Trade Gothic or similar.

Cover concept: Jim Steinman
Design: Ed Lee
Illustration: Richard Corben
Photography: Frank Laffitte

Baron Frankenstein creates two "zombies" - one male, one female - planning to mate them in order to create a master race. — IMDb

One of [main actor] Udo Kier’s most vivid memories from “Flesh for Frankenstein” was the infamous ‘internal organ’ scene. Real animal organs were used that were left unrefrigerated on the set for several hours. Udo had to pull the organs out of a prop dummy with his bare hands and hold them up to his face. He has said he will never forget that smell. — IMDb

The Italian Horror movie Flesh For Frankenstein (1973) was named Andy Warhol’s Frankenstein in the United States in 1974 for marketing reasons. Andy Warhol himself (allegedly one of five producers) was hardly involved. He was credited for the movie largely due to earlier collaborations with director Paul Morissey and the appearance of his protégé Joe Dallesandro in the role of Nicholas the stable boy.

Bradley is used on both the poster and in the theatrical trailer, with lifted initial caps (again). The credits use what looks like Trade Gothic and the movie title – lettered with red paint on a photo print skin, sliced and stitched back together – seems to be modeled after Franklin Gothic (but with a different leg on the R). The same type treatment was re-used for the 2015 vinyl release with the original movie soundtrack.