The Nature of Type Design in the 19th C, Part Two

Back cover of the 1898 Strong Seed & Plant Co. catalog seen above.

Yesterday, in Part One I reported on the proliferation of seed catalogs during the later half of the 19th century and how they came to reflect the nature of hand-lettering styles of that era. Today I am featuring a collection of seed catalog cover designs from "America's Attic", in the archives of the Smithsonian Institution which consists of 10,000 seed and nursery catalogs dating from 1830 to the present. They not only are important historical documents from a botanical perspective, but they also provide a window into a remarkably rich history of type design, illustration, and printing in the 19th century. The designers of these ornate covers were master lettering artists and it is clear the concept of minimalism was not in the vocabulary of their day.
      Most of these early catalog covers in the mid-19th century contained very decorative typography with colorful illustrations and printed with chromolithography and wood engravings. Typically the artist would combine some decorative lettering, often drawn on a curved path, with other text on horizontal baselines. Ornamental frames and devices were also used to contain some of the lettering designs at times, as seen in the artwork of the cover directly above. Alternatively, the text might be incorporated within the illustration or it may be the only treatment that carries the entire design, as in the case of the 1872 Vick's catalog seen above.
      The Smithsonian's digital archive of these seed catalogs are an incredibly valuable resource of 19th century hand-lettering and design. The site is well-documented and represents 258 catalogs with 500 individual images for endless exploration. Most of the collection was donated by Mrs. David Burpee in 1982.

The Nature of Type Design in the 19th C, Part One

Seed companies and mail-order catalogs proliferated in America and Britain during the second half of the 19th century as transportation and postal networks improved. With new growth in urban areas throughout the US, seed and nursery companies faced increased competition and which lead to the growth of hand illustrated type designs. It wasn't enough for nurseries and seed companies to distinguish themselves from their competitors just by offering novelty plant specimens. They had to create elaborately illustrated catalog covers, often with hand-lettered type layouts. The seed catalog cover designs displayed above are not necessarily some of the most colorful or elaborate, but they are typical of some of the early type layouts. These are all from the Oregon State University Seed and Nursery Trade catalogue collection.
      James Vick was one of the merchants who dominated the floral nursery industry in upstate New York in the second half of the 19th century. They had a 100 acre nursery for growing seeds and plants, a retail store, an order and packing department, a publishing office, engravers' rooms, and a bindery for the production of catalogs. 
      Below are wood engravings from an 1873 Vick's Floral catalog which illustrate their seed warehouse and retail store which is part of an online exhibit from the American Antiquarian Society on seed catalogs in the last half of the 19th century. Tomorrow I will include some additional 19th century catalog covers from other competing nurseries and seed companies. 

Halloween Treats

Cloudland, a witches' waltz from the Spellman Collection of Victorian Music Covers at The University of Reading. 

Paganini's Witches' Dance from M. Ryan Taylor's collection of Halloween Sheet Music at Thirteen for Halloween. With exception of the following photo, all other songsheets below are from the Thirteen for Halloween collection. Below is a photo of the another edition of the same sheet music as above, but from my own collection which is litho printed only one color.  No publishing date on it, but the songbook containing it is dated 1907. Loving the rustic lettering on this one, but how hard is it to kern stick letters?

Electro Man here in the Superhero costume could be a dead ringer for Stephen Colbert in tights...

And just 'cause it's witchcraft, I give you Sinatra's Witchcraft songsheet from the Frank Sinatra Impersonator Blog. Happy Halloween from Letterology!

Taterpress

Who doesn't like potato prints? Central Saint Martin's student Ed Cornish and friend did some print work with their hand-carved spud font. See more images of their process on Ed's Flickrstream.
:: Via the always interesting Printeresting!