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| "B" from 1923 ATF catalog, Typo Text typeface. |
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| "B" from "Lincoln Crest & Monogram Album. |
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| "B" from 1923 ATF catalog, WeddingText Shaded typeface. |
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| Mid-20th century sample page, Lehman Brothers engravers, New Haven, Connecticut. |
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| Hand engraved sample sheet, ca. 1950s. |
“Everybody loves letters. To be fair, most people love letters the way they love air—as something completely taken for granted yet absolutely necessary for getting through the day (or even through the next five minutes, as our obsessive device use would imply). But self-proclaimed typography nerds are burgeoning, and while digital fonts are well and good, the printed word is still—is increasingly—the ultimate form of lexical expression for connoisseurs. Spend just a bit of time poking through shops in Brooklyn, for example, and you are practically guaranteed sightings of some witty and truly wonderful letterpress. There is another level of beautiful, handcrafted lettering, though, that gets far less attention. In Nancy Sharon Collins’ paper “
Engraver, communicator of content” she looks at the under-appreciated significance of engraved lettering within the history of typography.”
—Posted on May 9, 2013 by INTELLECTBOOKS
