#fell types

Typography Tuesday

Among our most recent acquisitions is the type specimen book Notes on a Century of Typography at the University Press, Oxford 1693-1794 by Horace Hart, printer to the University and controller of the University Press, and printed at the press in 1900. Today we present floriated initials and a couple of pages of typographical ornaments from this volume. 

The ornaments were all cast in metal from matrices owned by the press, and all the initials were originally hand-cut in boxwood. Humorously, Hart includes  a wood engraving of a bearded man, “possibly the work of an amateur,” that was found on the reverse side of a woodcut for the letter L.

150 copies of this book were printed by Horace Hart, and our copy is a signed presentation copy from Hart to someone named Frederick James Cook.

View more posts on the types of the Oxford University Press.

Typography Tuesday

Yesterday and today I met with students in Typography classes at the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design (MIAD).to discuss the historical development of Roman letter forms and typography from the 5th century to the present. Of course I used materials from UWM Special Collections to demonstrate. Part of the discussion focused on the abysmal state of British typography from the 15th to 17th centuries because of rigorous state control over printing in the country. The main bright spot for British typography during this time was the renovation and reorganization of the Oxford University Press, and the acquisition by its director Dr. John Fell of not only distinctive Dutch typefaces, but also the punches and matrices in the early 1670s. The so-called Fell Types transformed British typographic expression, and when the laws that were hyper-controlling printing and typography in Great Britain were allowed to lapse in the mid-1690s, it opened a floodgate of innovations, including William Caslon’s designs for the first truly British national typeface in the 1730s.

Dr. Fell’s types, punches, and matrices are still preserved. This presentation is from the small letterpress book, The Roman Italic & Black Letter bequeathed to the University of Oxford by Dr. John Fell, printed from the Fell Types as a keepsake in 1951 for the Typophiles by Charles Batey, printer to Oxford University, in an edition of 475 copies. Our copy is a gift from our good friend Jerry Buff.

View more posts about the Fell Types.

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Spotlight: Charles I

On this date, January 4, in 1642, Charles I of England, having ordered the arrest of five members of Parliament and one peer on the grounds of high treason, went personally to the House of Commons with a squad of soldiers to make the arrest. The five slipped away, however, before the King's arrival, thus commencing England's slide into civil war. Seven years later to the very day, the Rump Parliament (i.e., a Parliament purged just a month before of those opposed to trying the King) voted to put Charles I on trial for high treason himself, ultimately resulting in the King's execution on January 30 and the beginning of the eleven-year Interregnum period.

Presented here are images from our copy of Sir William Dugdale’s A Short View of the Late Troubles in England, printed in Oxford “at the Theater for Moses Pitt at the Angel in St Paul’s Church-Yard, London” in 1681. Printing in England at this time was very strictly controlled, and the University at Oxford was one of only four locations where printers could be licensed to practice (the other three were London, Cambridge, and York). The “Theater” refers to the Sheldonian Theatre completed in 1669 after a design by Christopher Wren for the University of Oxford, which is depicted in an etching on the title page. It was in the basement of the Theatre where Dr. John Fell established the Oxford University Press in 1668 before the building’s completion. The Press would soon change the course of British typographic history with the acquisition of the “Fell Types,” which are utilized here.

Typography Tuesday

Fell Types

Dr. John Fell, Vice Chancellor of Oxford University, Dean of Christ Church, and Bishop of Oxford, founded the Oxford University Press in 1668 in the new Sheldonian Theatre, which he was also responsible for getting built. For all practical purposes, 17th-century England had no type-founding industry, so most type used by English printers at this time was of Dutch origin. This lack of native type prompted Dr. Fell to purchase punches and matrices from Holland to make type for the new University Press. These became forever known as the Fell Types, presumed to be the work of Dutch punchcutter Dirck Voskens, and are notable for their distinctive design.This marks the beginning of English interest in fine type design, paving the way for William Caslon a half century later.

The great British type designer and printing historian Stanley Morrison published this definitive book, John Fell, The University Press and the ‘Fell’ Types, in 1967 at Oxford’s Clarendon Press. Part II of this large tome is a full catalog of the Fell Types with their punches and matrices.

Fell Types final recordings are now online Circumscribe E.P. by Fell Types

We tracked these a few days before our last show, and I’ve been working on overdubs and mixing over the last couple of months. I’m really happy to finally have a representative recording of how our songs sounded live, even if there are a bunch of songs that never made it to tape. These were the songs we played at our last couple of shows, and I think is the best way to capture what we were doing as a bend at the end.

Fell Types - last song

This is the last Fell Types song we wrote, and in a frantic recording session, tracked this live a couple days ago. This will eventually go on bandcamp with a few other songs (mostly rerecorded versions of older songs), but I wanted to get this one up as soon as possible.

We had a lot of laptop recording problems, and a limited time to record. We were trying to cram all the equipment into the practice space at the chill factory, there was nowhere to put the laptop and the recording interface except in the middle of the room. We kept getting a hard drive error that would stop the recording, right when we get to the first heavy part about 30 seconds into the song. It turns out the vibrations from playing so loudly were causing the hard drive to engage a failsafe, and stop spinning, to prevent damage from trying to write during heavy vibrations. So we had to build a pillow fort around the laptop to buffer it from the sound.

Once we finally got everything working, we basically only had time for one take. And this is what we got. No overdubs, no fancy mixing, just a solid take of us playing the song live in a room.

While we didn't get a chance to do as much with the band as I would've liked, I think this recording is a good document of where we were at the end as musicians and songwriting wise. Rather than have me come in with a complete song (as I did with a lot of other Fell Types songs), I just came in with the core riff, and we finished writing the song together. Bass parts are all Diana and drum parts are all Matt.

Fell Types will be playing our last show in a couple weeks, as Diana is moving to San Francisco. The two of us will be working on finishing up about 40 minutes of recorded material before she leaves town, which we'll probably just put up for free.

https://www.facebook.com/events/332425560233680/

**shameless plug**

In unrelated news, if any DC folks are looking to start a new band this spring, hit me up. Looking for a drummer, and another guitarist, as I'd love to do a 2 guitar band. Points of reference: Television, Wipers, Wire, This Heat, early Sonic Youth, the Buzzcocks, Savage Republic.

Also would be into doing a late 90s/early 2000s style post-hardcore band. Points of reference: Stop It!!, City of Caterpillar, Portraits of Past, Shotmaker.

Busy musical week ahead of me. Playing first Fell Types show in 7 months with Gun Outfit tomorrow night:

https://www.facebook.com/events/282619068538123/

We'll be playing a brand new song, which is long and epic, and hopefully you all will like it as much as I do.

I'm in the middle of recording a demo for a new band I play guitar in called Gouge Away (w/ Greg M, Brian Lam, and Stephen). Expect tracks for that to drop within the next week or so.

And lastly, this Friday is the tape release show for my solo project/my birthday party:

https://www.facebook.com/events/187250698093128/

I'll be releasing the whole tape for free online a couple of days before the show. It's 36 minutes of music, and I'm really excited to get it out there to the world. Either hit me up, or Sister Polygon records ([email protected]) if you want a physical copy.