Walter Gerwig – Johann Sebastian Bach: Lute Music album art
This album with music composed by Johann Sebastian Bach and performed by German lutenist Walter Gerwig was released on Nonesuch Records in 1966. The cover design is by William S. Harvey, with art by Donald Leake.
Phanitalian Ornamented No 2 was first shown by wood type manufacturer William Hamilton Page in 1879, more than a century after Bach had lived. Still, Harvey deemed the Tuscan with its bulbous terminals baroque enough to be used for the composer’s name. Its mid-stem decoration was a tad too much, though: the designer simplified the letterforms by cutting away the lateral knobs. The only letters to keep their decoration are those where the “rivet heads” connect to a structural element on the other side of the stem, see B E H. In the process, Harvey also made the letters a little wider.
Detail of Phanitalian Ornamented No 2, widened and minus the mid-stem ornamentation. Compare to the unmodified letterforms in Solotype’s phototype version, Bohemia.
