Lettering For The Trades

Lovely lettering sample book published in Rotterdam in 1900 for signpainters, stonecutters, lithographers and architects. Kindly shared on Piet Schreuder's Flickrstream.   

Celebrating Printer's Labor

I'm just returning from a long holiday weekend celebrating Labor Day by not working. I have lots of material saved up to share this week, but will begin with this 1939 US stamp commemorating the 300th anniversary of the first working printing press in the US; The Stephen Daye Press in Cambridge, Massachusetts. By my count that now makes it 372 years ago. The first published work from the press was a broadside, The Freeman's Oath, followed by an 8 page Almanac for 1639 and the first published book in the US, the nearly 300 page Bay Psalm Book. You can find an interesting account of this first press here or if that's too much work, kick back and listen to the audio clip of it instead.

Thou Shalt Not Copy

There were few textbooks available to young students in the 18th and 19th centuries. Instead, students would use blank books, more commonly referred to as copybooks, to copy their teacher's lessons entirely by hand. Many of these early books were made by hand, until the local stationers eventually began supplying ruled and plain copybooks, often with advertisements on their wrappers. 
      My photos of the penmanship copybook shown above are from a 2008 exhibit, 350 Years of Books for Children at the University of Washington's Suzallo Library. Penmanship exercises were a common form of copybooks. This one is from a Hampstead, Massachussettes student, Tristram Little, and dated 1823-1826. I do love the text in it; Be careful to keep your book very clean.

The copybook above is a math book from the same exhibit and it belonged to Catherine Palen, in 1825. This was also at a time when students were expected to hand-copy their arithmetic problems from the blackboards. Catherine must have been a serious over-achiever. No one decorates titles like this at the top of their pages unless they're aiming for extra credit. Nice layout I might add. I'd certainly give her an A+ regardless of her square roots.
      Although this next copybook below is undated, I would suggest it is from the early 1700s. Based upon the unlined paper, the lettering and penmanship style, and the puritanical text, it appears to be at least this old. I purchased this book years ago from a rare book dealer and it had no documentation. The pages appear to have been very fragile, so someone went to great lengths to preserve it by glueing it on a similar weight and kind of paper in a professional manner. Some of the original pages were separated and the remnants of these are glued in place onto new pages as well. The restored booklet is only 4 pages measuring 5 x 6".

Below is a great example of a typical 19th century copybook. This one belonging to Eli Lee Harrison, is estimated to be from around 1850, according to Pat Pflieger at the Merry Coz where I found this example. It was produced by the L.S. Learned Company (love the name) of New England. The woodcut images on the front and back covers portray the Pilgrim's landing on the shores of Cape Cod near Eastham, MA (lovely place I might add). The inside pages are pale blue and filled with Eli's rather poorly-executed penmanship exercises such as this odd little verse; Idleness and ignorance are the parents of many vices. Well ok, I'll take less ignorance, but I could surely use a lot more of the idleness vice.

Alphabet Mignon

Sweet little French embroidery booklet on Etsy. Ten pages measuring 2x3". Kerning pairs not included. 

Cultivating Ferns & Fine Typography

Being a native Northwestern girl, I am a big fern fan and friend of the frond. OK, the type on this Catalogue of Ferns is pretty damn nice too. It was published in 1884 by the W&J Birkenhead Fern Nursery, in Manchester England, and is chock full of beautiful B&W botanical illustrations. Ferns were extremely popular in England at that time and collecting and growing specimens became all the rage. Ferneries became tourists destinations and ornate miniature greenhouses were invented (called the Wardian Case) to house indoor ferns. 
      The W&J Birkenhead Catalogue claimed to have the largest stock in the greatest number of species and varieties in the trade. Inspired by it, I began a small fern garden this past year and have a few ferns which I have propagated from spores. Finding the typography equally inspiring, I also intend to further my studies on how to propagate this lovely type from spores. I might better my luck by beginning with the rustic type on the catalog cover below.

This version of the 1899 W&J Birkenhead Fern Catalogue with the lovely rustic typography on the front cover claims to have over 1400 different fern species listed. It is also available at auction at this time. 
:: Via the Letterology Archives.

A Fountain of Blackletter Text

A very unusual title page from a German text, dated 1676. It is said to be an early example of concrete typography, and it can be yours for only $450 on eBay. 

Alphabetical Wonders

In Bologna, Italy in 1839, decorative artist Antonio Basoli published a fantastic set of lithographs for his book, Alfabeto Pittorico (Pictorial Alphabet, or a collection of pictorial thoughts composed of objects beginning with the individual letters of the alphabet). His elaborate architectural drawings of twenty-four letters of the alphabet and one ampersand (sorry J & W), became later known as Basoli's Alphabet. View all of them in this video below.

Basoli wasn't the first and only to propose this idea of architectural alphabets. In 1773, Johann David Steingruber published his book of palatial plans, Architectonisches Alphabeth, where he designed grand construction plans based on the twenty-six letters of the alphabet. To learn more, read Giornale Nuovo's post on Steingruber's alphabetical wonders, which is fortunately, still on life support. You can also read his dispatch on Basoli's Alphabet here.

The Cure

During the late 19th century, miniature almanacs with colorful cover designs were a popular form of promotional advertising by manufacturers of medicines who often gave them away at drug stores throughout the US, Canada and England. One such maker was Hazeltine medicines, of Warren, PA, who were proprietor's of Piso's (pronounced "pie-soz) brand cures for consumption (tuberculosis) and other maladies, and they issued a series of very popular almanacs measuring only 2 x 1-3/8". Hazeltine soon became famous for the Piso's brand cough medicine which contained extracts of chloroform, cannibis, morphine and other opiates and renamed itself "Piso". Today, the little Hazeltine Almanacs are not only collected because of their size and design, but they are very popular with those who collect ephemera related to illegal drugs once found commonly in medicines. Piso's was later exposed by Samuel Adam's as being a brand name cannibis medicine in his classic 1905 book on quackery, The Great American Fraud, which soon lead to the establishment of the US Food and Drug Administration.
      Just another epic true tale in the annals of American marketing and public deception. As odd as this story is, the untold story I would most like to hear would be about the designers and printers of these little almanacs. Unfortunately, little respect or recognition was paid to these craftsmen of that era.

:: Images of Hazeltine Almanacs via Saul Zaleschs' Ephemera Studies. Images of Piso's medicines via Antique Cannibis Book.

The Art of the Book Jacket

This is kind of like walking into a hall of mirrors. This wonderful front & back cover design by Hans Tisdall is for an exhibit about the history of book cover designs. It's from the 1949 exhibit catalog for The Art of the Book Jacket at the Victoria & Albert Museum which was the first international exhibit of it's kind. It featured some 460 examples of book jackets from 19 countries and helped to popularize the dust jacket or dust wrapper as it was often referred, beyond a purely utilitarian use. In the introduction to this catalog, Leigh Ashton writes that those who succeed in visually conveying the author's work, be it pictorial or typographical, have every right to be called true artists. 
:: The 1949 catalog cover of the V&A exhibit is from the Visual Telling of Stories archive.

I can only presume the book jacket examples below may have been in the 1949 exhibit. 
:: All images below are from the Victoria & Albert Museum collections.

Anonymous, 1928

Anonymous, 1935

E. McKnight Kauffer, 1928

Edward Bawden, 1932

Eric Fraser, 1937

Ernest Benn, 1928

Harold Jones, 1936

Jean Cocteau, 1932

John Armstrong, 1937

P. Youngman Carter, 1932

Paul Nash, 1930

Rex Whistler, 1933

Roger Fry, 1929

Vanessa Bell, 1937

William Heinemann, 1928