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Typography Tuesday

Here are some examples of chromatic wood type borders from an untitled and undated specimen catalog of the Luzern, Switzerland, wood-type manufacture Roman Scherer (1848-1922), produced ca. 1905. Scherer founded Holztypenfabrik Roman Scherer in Luzern in 1877, designing and manufacturing wood type using wood from local fruit trees. Scherer’s company was the first and probably the only Swiss wood-type manufacturer, operating until the late 1970s. 

The business remained prosperous after Scherer's death, but in the mid-1960s the foundry had to shut down because of the construction of Swiss Autobahn 27, and in 1966 the company was acquired by the Haas Type Foundry and moved to Münchenstein near Basel. Manufacture of wood type slowed and in 1976 production was moved to Gedi-Schriften of the Diller brothers company in Bamberg, Germany. Today, Scherer type catalogs are much sought after.

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