Recent Updates

2012-05-15. Again while researching the work of J.F. Cumming, it became necessary to explore and explain conflicting definitions of the word “cut” vs “designed” vs “introduced.” Confusion dates back more than five centuries to an era of British history when printers were forbidden by law to buy or sell type. This important article recognizes the work of Loy as authoritative and interprets the meanings intended by others in historical context.

2012-04-28. While researching my new theory of J.F. Cumming’s career after 1896 (the time-line is very convincing!), I discovered a Required Reading Prophecy that now appears at the top of the home page. In the August 1895 edition of The Inland Printer, R. Coupland Harding wrote:

“William Morris has predicted that typography will cease to exist during the next century, and he may be right in the forecast. I see it threatened by the camera, the etching fluid, and by the (at present) harmless and inoffensive ‘typewriter,’ in the keyboard of which lies the germ of something much greater in the future.”

2012-04-15. Added a paragraph to About THP expressing commitment to organizing and facilitating digitization and documentation of 19th- and early 20th-century display fonts. This work is important! A few decades from now, already-scarce letterpress equipment, metal and wood type may be concentrated in museums and private collections unavailable to most type buffs. If computer-ready versions exist, these rare gems can be studied, appreciated and used!

2012-04-09. A point raised by Stephen O. Saxe triggered A–Z re-thinking of the theory that JFC left the type field after cutting Montaigne for Riverside Press in 1902. In fact, all available “hard” evidence indicates that as early as 1896 (the year Loy started researching his article about him) he may have left DTF/ATF and was thereafter employed by the Hansen TF of Boston and/or as a freelancer. This interpretation explains why JFC cut relatively few ATF faces (compared to 26 for BTF in only three years) and why only two were patented. Please stay tuned—I’m working hard on this!

2012-03-24. Still researching/finalizing Part 9 of the featured article on J.F. Cumming… In the process, added Part 10 entitled Everything Else, which addresses documented and proposed commissions by the ATF-independent H.C. Hansen TF of Boston and perhaps others.

The next published sections of Part 9 will examine JFC-cut faces developed by Binner Engraving Company (Binner#, Binner Gothic#, Florentine Old Style# and patented dual-case derivatives) and by William Morris (Satanick# as well as Phinney’s independent study of Jenson’s work) popularized by William Morris, who angrily refused repeated requests by Phinney and/or Bullen for rights to copy them.

2012-03-13. Continuing work on Part 9 of the featured article: J.F. Cumming’s work for the Boston Branch of ATF, formerly DTF. Documenting observations and uploading images supporting logical conclusions that others designed the ATF typefaces he cut per his report to Loy: Virile#, Howland, Globe Gothic (plus Extended, Condensed and Extra-Condensed derivatives), Florentine Old Style#, Satanick#, Binner Gothic#, Elandkay, Cushing#/Cushing Italic#, and Abbott#=Abbott Oldstyle#. Evidence that he designed the italic for Jenson Old Style, J.W. Phinney’s original interpretation of the work of Nicholas Jenson (first successful roman book face, c1470).

2012-03-04. “Skipped ahead” in the featured article on J.F. Cumming to a preview of ATF Binner/Binner Gothic (Part 9, ATF). More bubble-bursting Required Reading for all accepting info “out there” that J.W. Phinney and/or JFC designed either of these fonts… Nope—they had been “signature faces” of the Binner Engraving Company (Milwaukee 1890, Chicago 1892) for at least three years when ATF apparently purchased exclusive rights. Preview of another Part 9 preview: ATF Florentine faces likewise originated with Binner; dates indicate that rights were negotiated in the same deal.

Expanded the bio of Andreas V. Haight and the overview of 19th-century Freelance Type Designers.

Forgot to mention (last week?) that I added some background to the home page about the Historical Importance of Display Type. In case you haven’t seen it lately, you may be surprised to learn how really important it was!

Published a new page on Andreas V. Haight, first of the 19th-century independent type designers to be discussed.

Recent correspondence with Stephen O. Saxe [Johnston, A.M.; Saxe, S.O. [Editors](2009): William E. Loy|Nineteenth-Century American Designers and Engravers of Type.  Oak Knoll Books, New Castle, DE] has nearly resolved confusion about BTF Morris cut by J.F. Cumming most likely ≤1884. Hopefullly, conclusion of this “to be continued” page will happen soon!

While re-examining UK and French specimens of “Runic” fonts pre-dating BTF Morris by some two decades, I discovered a dual-case specimen of ATF Marble Heart in BTF 1860—ten years earlier than reported by Lieberman and McGrew. So I updated linked pages accordingly. Marble Heart is an o-l-d 3D sans-serif face still effective today. It has a super-interesting history, so I hope someone will digitize it for posterity!

More apologies for a l-o-n-g “dead air time.” Taking a holiday from the featured article on John F. Cumming, I switched to one about 19th-century type designers vs type cutters vs type producer execs who patented their work—with a sidebar on “part-time” type designers. Along the way, the sidebar loomed in interest and importance since these guys were not documented by Loy. Previews… Andreas V. Haight, cutting-edge letterpress printer/Artistic Printing guru (Card Gothic, Atlanta#,  Vassar#, Fashion Antique, Rogers#) plus illustrators/lettering artists like George Halm, Edwin Abbey, Ludwig Ipsen, Will Bradley and W.W. Denslow. This article is nearly finished (with specimens stored at Flickr) and will be published soon—please stay tuned!

Apologies for difficult navigation of the featured article. As a one-woman (WordPress) website-designer “newbie,” I must learn in an “organic” fashion: tackling One Technical Challenge at a Time as needs arise. Please bear with me as I figure out a better way to index “child” and “grandchild” pages for visitors’ convenience. In the meantime, the site map is recommended (open it in a separate tab) for “skipping around.”

Published Part 7f. Part 7g will discuss Rubens and Duerer, one of two final fonts JFC cut before leaving Boston TF.

Almost  ready to publish Part 7f of the featured article about John F. Cumming on BTF’s “German Cities Collection.” The facts of this case are so confusing that I changed conclusions multiple times, then changed back to the original ones! The sidebar records for posterity a personal communication from Dan X. Solo regarding Lubeck, a face that JFC reported to Loy that he cut in ±1881–1884.

Corrected a typo on the “About THP” page: Gustav Schroeder designed Art Gothic in 1886, not 1880.

Part 7f of the featured article on J.F. Cumming will explore four BTF faces named for German cities, one of which JFC designed. There is evidence that, in his account to Loy, he mis-remembered which ones he cut.

Included BTF Banner with Part 7b on Italic Caps.

Added a Site Map for navigation, especially through the featured article.

Updated links for Luc Devroye’s newly hosted site and added St. Bride Library, where Nicolette Gray conducted most of her research—the St. Bride Foundation asked permission to distribute a link to THP.

Published Part 7e on BTF Kismet#. In the course of writing this installment, it occurred to me how very stressed JFC must have been with a “moonlighting” job plus multiple family obligations on top of his type career. So I added the following observations to Part 1 (Biography):

The fact that he held a second job suggests that he may have needed extra income and accounts for his “spare time.” Surely he was too preoccupied with earning a living, too busy (or too tired!) to independently imagine and draw new typefaces.

The simple family gravestone represents a man of adequate, far from affluent, means.

There is a great deal of commonly accepted mis-information “out there” about John F. Cumming’s best-known BTF type design, Kismet#. The next installment of THP’s featured article will settle the record once and for all with “smoking gun” evidence published in The Inland Printer edition of July 1898 by William E. Loy, an expertly qualified eye-witness to 19th-century type history and biographer of more than two dozen pre-ATF US designers and engravers of type. Nutshell Preview: Since Cumming was hired by BTF as a “clue-less” type cutter in 1881, it is not possible that he designed Kismet# two years earlier (1879) as reported by digital foundries who may (or may not) own the tradename. The letterform design has always been “public domain” because it was never patented.

Needed a change from writing and research, so I prepped, documented and uploaded some new specimens of as-yet undigitized fonts: the sparkling Double Gothic Shade=Marble Heart, possibly of German origin ≤1867, shown by at least two pre-ATF members and revived by ATF several times starting in 1933; and a set of three color-separation registration-worthy “little black dress” Caslon faces of the early 1840s likewise acquired and re-marketed by ATF in 1933 and 1949.

THP Bibliography. It became increasingly difficult to squeeze constant updates into letter-size page layouts, so I transferred the document from PDF format to continuous web pages and learned how to “redirect” the URL for seamless browsing via pages cached by search engines.

Ooops! Withdrew Mural# from “Cool Undigizited Fonts” and linked specimens. Dan X. Solo offers a revival at MyFonts, where it is duly “endorsed” as authentic by inclusion in a THP Album. DXS added a lower case to the caps-only original, so either I didn’t recognize it as shown or just-plain forgot it was available. Apologies to all concerned! A second one, more like a stylized Mural# Bold, is less true to the original.

Added a bit more information on Caslon Enchorial=BTF London in Part VIIc.

Published Part VIId of the article on J.F. Cumming. This one concerns the BTF script collection; JFC cut four of the six original cursive hands produced in 1870–1892.

Finished discussion of the first three of four BTF fonts cut by Cumming that involve the Caslon TF, Part VIIc of the Featured JFC Article. This incomplete part will be generally accessible when I learn how to enable navigation between/among multiple sections of this extensive (and technically daunting) history of JFC’s type career. Discussion of the fourth font (Morris) is postponed pending consultation with another type historian who may be willing to share sources of tradenamed specimens. For now, it may be viewed via the “next” sequence or a temporary link.

Added yet another “Niggling Question” to the  Featured JFC Article.

Added an illustration to Part VI of the Featured JFC Article.

Corrected a “mistaken identity” error in the Caslon sidebar, Part VI.

Added a bit more historical info to the Type Tradenames article.

Added JFC “memory disclaimer” context to Part II of the featured article on Cumming.

Revised info on Phinney’s appointment as DTF Partner (yet another case of historian disagreement).

Added illustrated examples to Type Tradenames. A guaranteed-interesting read, especially for revival font developers!

Added italic caps to JFC Part VII. The next installment will cover BTF Caslon fonts cut by JFC in 1881-1884. This one is complicated by an obscure, poorly documented specimen of a typeface already in common worldwide use during the 1860s, so please bear with me…

—Anna