Other formats

    Adobe Portable Document Format file (facsimile images)   TEI XML file   ePub eBook file  

Connect

    mail icontwitter iconBlogspot iconrss icon

Typo: A Monthly Newspaper and Literary Review, Volume 2

Recent Specimens

page 87

Recent Specimens

During the past month we have received remarkably little in the way of novelties— specimens of only one new face of type (of American design, noted below) having come to hand. From Mr C. Morton, of the City Road Foundry, London, however, we have a large quarto specimen-book of ornaments— the largest and most varied collection we have yet seen. They are systematically arranged, to the number of several thousand, and occupy nearly five hundred pages. All sizes and styles are shewn—English and foreign— and the work is a complete treasury of ornament, old and new. Here we find old friends that we last saw in the specimen-books of J. & R. M. Wood, whose stock of electrotypes Mr Morton tells us he has secured. We find quaint old tail-pieces that might have been engraved by Bewick himself. Mavor's old spelling-book has been out of use for a whole generation, and is nearly forgotten; but here are his cuts of the domestic animals—and capital ones they are. Two illustrations of sheep-shearing are delightful specimens of the art of the wood-engraver some fifty years ago. They would, however, scarcely suit the colonies. In one, two farmers are seated on the grass shearing-One has his coat on, and they are proceeding with great deliberation. Four full wool-packs, the size and shape of flour-bags, are at their side, and close at hand a large full-rigged ship awaits the cargo. In the other an aged rustic, beneath an umbrageous tree, shears a ewe. A younger man holds a restive half-shorn lamb with one hand, and in the other a pot of foaming beer; part of the fleece lying before him on the ground. Though not available for advertising purposes, quaint and beautiful old blocks such as these have an æsthetic value which has only lately been appreciated. Side by side with them, we have the latest productions of the modern artist and designer. There are head-pieces in fac-simile from originals in the « Breeches » Bible, and others electrotyped from the latest combination borders. The collection begins with a large assortment of national emblems, followed by the arms and emblems of cities, societies, and institutions. Then follow trades and occupations, and among the thousands of designs, there are some appropriate to trades that we have not seen represented in any other collection. There is quite a menagerie of beasts, birds, and fishes, a botanic garden of floral subjects; corner and centre ornaments, large and small, classical and mythological subjects, views of cities, parks, and scenes of polar exploration for paper-bag literature; portraits of celebrities; calendar cuts—in fact every imaginable requirement in the electrotype department. There are a few sets of good initials; but this is not a strong point in the collection. There are several founts of reversed type, suggestive of Alice's adventures in Looking-glass Land. The great features of the book are its extraordinarily large collection of pierced and morticed blocks, and its electrotyped borders composed from modern combinations. In an ordinary job-office these would be found far more useful and economical than the combinations themselves. Made up to all the standard card and job sizes, they entirely obviate the necessity of border composition—a class of work which occupies a great amount of time. In some of these electrotyped borders there is a strange mixture of styles. In the later pages of the book are some clever and artistic escutcheon and scroll designs (evidently of German origin) pierced for the insertion of initials or small advertisements. In addition to electrotype ornaments, Mr Morton shews the newest American job styles of type, and some of the best German combinations. Many a colonial printer, looking over this volume, will wish he was near enough to « ring up » the foundry on those frequent occasions when a cut is wanted for a particular job, and there is nothing in the office to suit. The printer who has this book should keep it out of the way of his devils, or they will have, as the advertisement puts it, « a high old time, » instead of attending to their work. The temptation would be irresistible.

Messrs Marder, Luse & Co., Chicago, shew a new and quite original style, with lower-case, called « Litho-tint. » The form of the letter is massive, and somewhat quaint, though by no means crazy. It is striking and legible, the face is a fine tint of horizontal lines, and a heavy outline on one side and at the foot gives it an appearance of relief. This is a style that will meet with favor.