John HudsonRE: https://typo.social/@a_vsn/116014361972002506
Was about to boost this from the Tiro account, but then realised this is a good fit for the personal account’s stated interest in #AutomotiveDesign
Anna Vasina@tiro_j do you maybe know how De Vinne font entered Europe?
I'm quite curious to understand the popularity of it in the Romanian region.
I've also encountered quite often the Lateinisch font in the interwar press, so I wonder if these too fonts have much in common...
Florian Hardwig@a_vsn @tiro_j I hope you don’t mind me chiming in. The typeface used in the ads is not quite De Vinne (Condensed), but the similar Schmale halbfette Romanisch by Schelter & Giesecke in Leipzig.
https://bibliotekus.artlebedev.ru/books/schriften-messinglinien-usw/268/
https://fontsinuse.com/typefaces/44490/romanisch
Both belong to a trend that seeked to overcome “modern” typefaces (think didones) by bringing back “oldstyle” (a.k.a. Elzevirian, or Mediäval in German) forms. It started with Perrin’s Caractères Augustaux in 1846.
https://fontsinuse.com/typefaces/217224/caracteres-augustaux
https://bibliotekus.artlebedev.ru/books/schriften-messinglinien-usw/268/
https://fontsinuse.com/typefaces/44490/romanisch
Both belong to a trend that seeked to overcome “modern” typefaces (think didones) by bringing back “oldstyle” (a.k.a. Elzevirian, or Mediäval in German) forms. It started with Perrin’s Caractères Augustaux in 1846.
https://fontsinuse.com/typefaces/217224/caracteres-augustaux
Библиотекус
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@a_vsn @tiro_j By the 1890s, designs of this lineage were expanded into several weights and widths and became immensely popular in commercial printing. Lateinisch was Berthold’s contribution to this wave. Romana by Haas is another one of note. My understanding is that it was mainly German foundries who provided printers in Central and Eastern Europe with type. For example, Stempel and Berthold had branches or holdings in Vienna, Budapest, St. Petersburg, Moscow, Riga, …
@fhardwig thank you for the detailed explanation and links!
I'l dare to ask another question, what about the specific legs for the uppercase R & K, where do they come from?
If the typeface tried to revive an old style kind of fount, it must have traced something older, or is it an Art Nouveau influence?
@a_vsn Apologies for the slow response. I think I can best explain this R-evolution with an illustration.
1. Roman inscription, 1st century AD.
2. Caractères Augustaux, 1846. Designed by Louis Perrin after sketches made from Roman inscriptions.
3. Beaudoire’s Elzevir, Fonderie Générale, by 1860. A commercial follower of Perrin.
4. De Vinne by Gustave F. Schroeder, Central Type Foundry, c.1892.
@a_vsn Roman square capitals came in many variants, but an R with a pointed and sometimes descending leg has always™ been around. The rest is interpretation/idealization/exaggeration. What De Vinne & co. added to this was variegating the weight and width.
@a_vsn More musings about the De Vinne R in the comments to this 2022 post, including a Я: https://fontsinuse.com/uses/44820/searching-for-caleb-by-anne-tyler-berkley-198#comment-705233
Searching for Caleb by Anne Tyler (Berkley, 1983; Pan, 1990)
Anne Tyler’s novel Searching for Caleb was originally published by Alfred A. Knopf in 1975. Shown here are two paperback editions of later dates. The one issued by Berkley in 1983 features caps from a phototype version of De Vinne. With the relatively thick bars in E F H and t
Very interesting. Many thanks @fhardwig !