page 105

Design in Typography.
Corners and Centres.

Zoological, botanical, classic, and allegorical subjects have come freely into use in decorative typography since the « æsthetic » revival of ten or twelve years ago. We have already had a good deal to say about the dangers attending the use of this style of art, the affectation and unreality of many of its developments, and its incongruity with sober commercial work. All these difficulties beset the typographic artist: the bungler, by abusing such designs, has introduced a new horror into « art printing. » With many of the old straight-ahead borders, it was scarcely possible to go astray in the composition. Even if the comp did not know the top of the pattern from the bottom, there was always the nick to guide him, and the worst he could do would be to turn an occasional corner outwards instead of inwards. But with the vignette combinations, a new and illimitable field has opened up for the erratic genius. A sable four-line cormorant in one upper corner may be balanced by a six-line butterfly in the opposite, while at the bottom, on the left hand, the richly-robed three-line Asiatic Angler sits beneath the slender bamboo—a Silent Symbol of Eternal Expectancy.

The Western Electrotype Foundry, of St. Louis, in their popular « Æsthetic » series of ornaments, have some good side- and centre-pieces, in the Kate-Greenaway style, which may also be used as corner-pieces, as in the annexed examples. The idea has not been very fully developed in this series, but has been taken up by a German house, as below:—

German artists usually excel in juvenile subjects, but these are below the average. In the first of the three figures, the foot is very badly drawn. A defect of this series is, that the pieces are all for the same corner of the work; and further, the blank portion inside the line is not cut away, leading to waste of space, and preventing any but very short lines from being placed in the centre. This latter fault is a very common one in corners.

Conner's Sons, New York, have brought out several series of « Illustrated corners, » two of which, (from the first series), we shew. Most of these may be used either as inner or outer corners, according as the rules, are arranged—the lady with the fan, for instance, being available as an upper left-hand or lower right-hand corner. These, in common with nearly all electrotyped corners, have one fault—the gradual thickening of the rule towards the cutoff end, so that it has an uneven appearance, and generally joins up very badly with brass-rule.

We have already described and shewn some of the « Artistic Ornaments » of Reed. These are principally corner-vignettes, but the set has also a pair of pretty centre-ornaments, top and bottom, one of which we shew:

Closely allied to these are the beautiful floral pieces which (like the frame corners), are cast so as to appear cut off, the design being interrupted by the border. Many of them may be used either as interior or exterior decorations. Among the earliest of these were some initial ornaments by Stephenson, Blake, & Co., and the Cleveland Foundry's « Auxiliaries, » (p. 41). The idea has since been beautifully developed by Zeese, of Chicago. Where there is abundant room for display, these ornaments may be used to advantage. They relieve, in a very artistic manner, the stiffness of the brass rule, and the formality of the rectangular border. They have met with much appreciation, and are not likely to go out of fashion. Something of a parallel kind is to be found in recent German combinations, as in the pair of brackets in the « Architectural » series, and the ornaments in the « Holbein » border—both by Schelter & Giesecke.

It is scarcely necessary to observe that corners and centres designed for regular combination borders are often available for brass-rule. Many of the pretty « French borders » in Figgins's old specimens are really nothing but corners and centres, as in the examples here illustrated, of two and three characters respectively. Another of the same series, containing eight characters, is chiefly remarkable for possessing four distinct corners, and long and short extension-pieces, allowing of considerable diversity of effect:

The corners and centres may.of course be used symmetrically; but in oblong pages, if preferred, the long pieces may be used lengthwise, and the short pieces breadthwise.