Recent Specimens.

It speaks well for the artistic insight of the Germans that they have been entirely unaffected by the big wave of typographic lunacy that has swept over the United States and swelled up high on the English and colonial shores. With a fertility of invention quite equal to that of their New-world rivals, they have never lost sight of the great objects of typographic design—artistic unity and beauty, and practical adaptation. And the result will be, that German borders, designed years ago, will continue to sell steadily when many of the recent Yankee notions have returned to their native pot. From the old and famous house of Wilhelm Gronau, Berlin, we have received a large parcel of original designs, forming a collection of which any foundry might be justly proud. One sheet is devoted to two series—light and heavy, of beautifully-cut plain scripts, and another sheet displays a set of gracefully-ornamented script initials. A double sheet exhibits three sizes of « Altgothisch, » with scroll initials for one and two colors; tablet initials; initials in the Holbein style, and other mediæval forms. The page is beautifully decorated with silhouette ornaments in one and two colors, and surrounded by a fine « Phantasie » border—9-line emerald, in four colors. A single sheet (125) contains four-and-twenty beautiful original head- and tail-pieces; and a double sheet (136), a pretty collection of varied polytyped ornaments, some of those pierced for insertion of type being specially good. In another page we have a combination of 42 characters, 12- to 24-point, and four sets of missal initials, for one or two colors. Another page shows a collection of 46 small tail-pieces, thirteen sorts of inner curved corners and semi-elliptical ornaments, beautifully designed, and a number of one- and two-color corners. Sheet 67 contains a fine collection of silhouette book-ornaments and tail-pieces. Another page shows a combination of 98 sorts, (Series Z), from 3-point to 12-point, and very effective illustrations of its display. Sheet 70 (double) shows the same combination displayed on a more extended scale. Sheet 71 shows 34 borders, mostly of heavy pattern, all on 12-point body. Some of the sorts appear to be counterparts of others (28-34, 25-42, &c.,) for two-color working, but they are not so shown. On the same page we note some combination corners, 33 characters, for use either as inner or outer corners—a very striking and useful series. Sheet 72 (double) shows some admirable two-color borders, initials, and fancy types, finely displayed. A quadruple sheet, in black and red, shows the « Renaissance » combination, 67 sorts, in every variety of display. Some of the sorts are cast for two-color work, with admirable effect. This is really a collection of quite independent running borders (which can be separately supplied) from half-emerald to 6-line emerald. An elaborate series of light line-ornaments, containing 185 characters, is displayed on a double page. There seems no limit to the adaptations of this beautiful combination. A double sheet, printed in three colors, shows a fine « Renaissance » border—of a similar character to Schelter & Giesecke's « Florentine » and « Holbein. » The figures are in white on solid ground, and the pieces are principally on 8-line emerald. The special feature of the border, which contains 54 characters, is the introduction of allegorical vignettes as part and parcel of the design. Of these there are fifteen, representing arts, sciences, fortune, &c. A new scroll combination in two sizes differs from its English prototype chiefly in the addition of suspenders and tassels—a feature borrowed from Caslon's « Banner. » Like the English scroll, it rolls to the left only. It is in two sizes, each containing eight characters, and is a pretty design. A double sheet (74) shows a dozen corner-vignettes—music, industry, &c., about 1½-inch square, all intended for the lower left-hand corner of the work, and a set of seventeen « Scherzhafte Ecken, » or comic corner-pieces, representing cats, dogs, monkeys, &c. These are not engraved with the delicacy characteristic of the other designs, and they all are furnished with a boundary-line intended to be continued with brass-rule. This we regard as a disadvantage, as it involves unnecessary justification, and a brass-rule rarely joins up well with an electro. On the same sheet is shown a good set of architectural ornaments—columns, pediments, cornices, consoles, &c., for combination. There are 28 characters in the series, which is one of the best of its kind.

Messrs Meyer & Schleicher, Vienna, send us a parcel of beautiful specimens of combination borders and ornaments. Two sheets (233, 264) are occupied with graceful corner-vignettes, allegorical in design, of various sizes, containing altogether 36 pieces. Another sheet contains seventy admirable silhouette tail-pieces, floral in design, most of them being shown in two sizes. There are also about half-a-dozen, on 12-point, intended for border-work. The « Holbein » border, 2-line emerald, 13 characters, differs greatly from the large combination known by the same name. It is a very neat and artistic border; the background in stipple, on which are white figures brought up on solid black, introducing the three effects of black, white, and half-tone. Some specimens of the design, in gold on solid grounds of blue and vermilion, have an exceedingly rich effect. Border No. 60, 37 characters, is composed of silhouette figures on a white ground, and is one of the freest and most attractive borders of kind yet produced. A compositor of ordinary intelligence would find no difficulty in its composition. We cannot say as much for the ambitious architectural combination No. 58, containing 86 characters, and a minimum fount of which weighs about 30lb. It differs from nearly every other architectural series in being cut in imitation of carved woodwork in the mediæval style. Without a model, very few compositors would attempt to compose it, and the design in the double sheet before us, beautiful as the details are—seems scarce worth the trouble. There is the unavoidable absence of unity in the composition as a whole—it looks too much like a structure put together with toy building-blocks. Sheets 261 and 263 show a very pretty and useful architectural series—pediments, gable ornaments, &c., with which are associated a number of inner corners on triangular body. There are in all 47 characters, and the set is not only artistic, but useful, and very reasonable in price.

The Johnson Foundry's Typographic Advertiser, No. 130, shows several new styles. The « Sansom » script, mentioned in our last, occupies the place of honor. It is evidently quite possible to work this long-kerned letter without damage, for there is not a broken letter in the two pages before us. « Gutenberg, » three sizes, is an eccentric with lower-case. Since the Central Foundry hit upon the « Harper, » there must have been at least a hundred of these cranky faces brought out in the States. An office could easily be stocked with nothing else—from the big poster styles to the 6 point imprint letters. « Gutenberg » has no special character of its own. « Ronaldson Gothic » is a cruel and futile attempt to introduce « old-style » peculiarities into sanserif. As these peculiarities are almost confined to the serifs, most of the letters remain as before. The B, P, and R, and the lower-case u, n, and h, are distorted, and have a « w.f. » appearance. « Ronaldson Condensed » is an elongated roman with the old-style characteristics exaggerated. Tonic sol-fa type, 8- and 10-point is shown, but without any synopsis of characters. Border 97, 25 characters, is a collection of the ragged and irregular ornaments lately introduced in the States, but so arranged as to combine into more or less symmetrical patterns. Much ingenuity is displayed in the composition and arrangement of these pieces. Those who know the « Astral, » the « Santa Claus, » and similar styles, can form an idea of this. The designers and cutters of such have wilfully and deliberately sacrificed every characteristic that gives type ornament its distinguishing beauty. « Mortised Ornaments, » 23 characters, are page 24painfully stiff and inelegant. « Card Ornaments No. 5 » are not only original, but artistic, and put the four earlier series quite in the shade. There are 32 characters, and unlike former hap-hazard series, the whole is dominated by a single and quite original idea—a denned pattern at the edge or corner, softening off almost imperceptibly into nothing. Only a true artist could have carried out such an idea successfully; but it has been done. The effect in black-and-white is rich, but some of the Yankee artist color-printers will produce grand results. We would have liked to see more justifying sorts; but it seems to be a fixed rule with this house to supply nothing shorter than 24-point. If printers will set measures to 13, 15, and other odd numbers of picas—they must buy their borders elsewhere, that is all! We heartily welcome this series as a sign that the era of « slobs, » « ink-spots, » and « scribble » ornaments is passing away.

Bruce's Sixth Supplement (loth January—a much more sensible date than « Fall-time » or « Spring Season » as affected by some of the American houses) shows four new series. « Black Ornamented, 542, » in four sizes, is one of those tint-face broad styles with which every student of American fancy letter is familiar. It is complete with figures, and the caps and a few of the lower-case letters (extra sorts) are slightly flourished. One peculiarity of this letter is, that the shade, or heavy outline, is left-handed, and a still more singular feature is, in the caps, a difference of tone, or depth of tint, in different parts of the same letter. In the for instance, the first heavy line is light, the centre one darker, and the third darker still, producing the effect of a shadow on the right. As this is carried through three sizes, and characterizes other caps as well, we presume it is intentional. But it is not a good feature, as it produces an effect that every careful printer tries to avoid—the appearance of an uneven distribution of ink. « Black Ornamented, 543, » four sizes, is the prettiest and most successful of many recent attempts to combine the best features of old english and ornamented roman. It is neat, graceful, very legible, and far more suitable for the body of a circular than half the new eccentric scripts lately devised. The printer who lays in a large fount of the pica or great primer for this end will find no cause to regret it. « Ornamented, 1500, » is a very neat and pretty style of thin letter, gracefully flourished, and not over-ornamented. « Ornamented, 1561, » five sizes, is a condensed eccentric—a kind of « cross » between « Century » and « Art Gothics. »

« Aztec. » (caps only) is a new experiment in fancy styles, by the Union Foundry, Chicago. It is a condensed letter, in five sizes. Its special character is, that the perpendicular lines of the letters are dowel-shaped—thick in the centre, and tapered to a fine point at each end. The letter is finished by a very flat and fine serif. We do not admire the effect.

The Illinois Typefounding Company has produced a second series of « Clipper » ornaments, 24 characters. They are thick and heavy—black enough for the smaller sizes of wooden poster type.