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Type Specimens.

Example being better than the most accurate description, we have pleasure this month in showing one of the new Floral Art Initials, second series, of the London Patent Type-Founding Company, already noted in our columns. The company has sent us two specimens; the other letter is not readily available in English work; but we will try to find a use for it in Typo at an early date. Series No. 1 is the same design on a larger scale. These pretty and effective letters are furnished also for two colors. We have from the same house a parcel of specimens of novelties, some of American and German origin, others original. The Floral Art Border is a fine and bold design, harmonising well with the initials. A small pamphlet shows a choice assortment of headpieces, pierced ornaments, and art vignettes. One of the latter we are able to show. This design is shown also in two larger sizes, the largest being two inches square, and there is a set of the royal arms, the same style and sizes, to correspond. Assyrian, in four sizes, 12· to 36·, is a useful letter, bearing some resemblance to the Art Gothic. We show a specimen line, 18· body. Two fine series of sanserif are shown; one, the Interchangeable Gothic, in twelve sizes, and the other, with lowercase, the Royal Gothic, ten sizes, 6· to 48·.

Mr T. E. Downey, 47 Berwick street, London, W., has brought out a very pretty series of Tinted Initials, with floral decorations. The blocks are about 9 ems deep, the letters, bold old-style roman in outline, 5½ ems. For two-color working, a separate tint-block is employed, bringing out the background with good effect.

The Tokyo-Tsükiji Foundry show a series of five very quaint and curious headpieces, numbered 1438 to 1442. They have also brought out some fine two-color initials, 9-line pica, under the name of Japonica. The decoration, floral and animal subjects, is characteristically Japanese.

A packet from the Actiengesellschaft (Offenbach on the Main) contains several new faces, all good. Keil-Grotesque is the same as the Keilschrift already shown in our pages, with the outline omitted. Those who objected to this line as too light and fragile, will admire the new face, which is bold, legible, and in our opinion an improvement on the ordinary sanserif. In the same seven sizes as its predecessor. Tedesca is not easily described. It is vertical, with certain italic characteristics, and in other respects resembles latin, as the cap A and H exemplify. Its peculiarity is, that the curves in such letters as m, n, and u, give place to oblique lines. We dislike several of the characters, but the general effect is good. It bears a similar relation to the Excelsior, an earlier design of the same house, as the Keil Grotesque to the Keilschrift, but while in the one case the light line is a weakness, in the other it is an improvement. There is a degree of angularity and stiffness in the Tedesca which is not noticeable in the Excelsior. Inserat-Kursiv is a very heavy script, in which there is no attempt at junction of letters. It is shown on 18· and 14· bodies, larger sizes having already appeared Halbfette Electa is a heavier form of the pretty original script already shown under the name of Electa: 16·, 20·, and 24·. Verzierte Skelett Kursiv is an extremely fine hairline fancy italic, very pretty and very delicate; in five sizes, 8· to 20·.

From Messrs Schelter & Giesecke, Leipzig, we have received specimen lines of four of their new styles of type, some of which we have already noted. The Cancellaresca is a neat script in three sizes, 20· to 36·. We show one line in this column; the remaining sizes may be seen on p. 18. The Circular Italian is a pretty ornate script, with plain and flourished caps, in four sizes. Magere Franklin, three sizes, is a useful job style, bearing some resemblance to the Philadelphia Bijou. It is in three sizes, 16· to 28·. A complementary style is the Halbfette Franklin, 20· and 28·, differing only in the extra thickness of line. Herkulanum is very suggestive of the Mother Hubbard of the Dickinson Foundry, but differs greatly in size as compared with body. The beard of the German letter is so large that the 48· is only equal in face to the 36· American, which fairly fills the body. The proportion of depth of face to body may be seen in the margin, where we have placed a 48· rule between two 48· letters. The letter is a very useful one for general jobbing, and like all Schelter & Giesecke's work, is beautifully finished. We have larger and smaller specimen lines of these styles, but have no room for them this month.

Lockwood is the name of a bold and legible old-style series, with lowercase, by A. D. Farmer & Son. It is a variant on the popular DeVinne, without being an imitation. Boreas is original in idea. The letters are roughly-shaped caps of the paint-brush order, and the face is tinted after a new style. Parallel white lines are drawn in the direction of the body-lines, with an effect like that produced by a brush half-charged with color. In 12·, 18·, and 24·. The same house shows in four sizes Typal, a neat old-style condensed sloping roman with heavy body-marks, something in the Ronaldson style.

From the Inland Printer Company we have a thin quarto, in two parts, containing diagrams of imposition and a collection of original ornaments and initials, the greater number of which have already appeared in the Inland Printer. Most of these are really artistic; but some, we think, would lie a long time unused in an ordinary job office.