#james blake

Typography Tuesday

Here are some "classic" fonts from Specimens of Printing Types from Stephenson, Blake, the Caslon Letter Foundry, Sheffield, published in Sheffield, England by the iconic British type foundry Stephenson Blake & Co. in 1959. Shown here:

Baskerville Old Style: originally designed by John Baskerville (1701-1775) in 1752 and first printed in his 1757 edition of Virgil's works. It was recut for the Fry Type Foundry in 1768. When Fry's successors closed, their version was acquired and issued by Stephenson Blake under the name "Baskerville Old Face."

Bodoni: originally designed by the Parma, Italy, type designer and printer Giambattista Bodoni (1740-1813) ca. 1790. Stephenson Blake acquired Bodoni matrices from a continental typefounder in 1927, issuing their own version to capitalize on the type's neoclassical popularity.

Perpetua: originally designed for the British Monotype Corporation by Eric Gill (1882-1940) and released ca. 1930. While Monotype produced it for hot-metal composition, Stephenson Blake cast the foundry version, with Gill supervising the matrix engraving to ensure consistency across formats. This arrangement exemplified their approach to licensing modern classics, making Perpetua available in sizes up to 72 points for hand composition.

Plantin: named after the sixteenth-century printer Christophe Plantin (c. 1520-1589), it is loosely based on a typeface cut in the 16th century by Robert Granjon (c. 1513-1590) held in the collection of the Plantin–Moretus Museum in Antwerp. It was designed ca. 1913 by Frank Hinman Pierpont (1860-1937) and Fritz Stelzer (1876-1940) for Monotype Corp and later adopted by Stephenson Blake.

Caslon: the most classic of all classic English typefaces, originally produced by William Caslon (1692-1766) in 1725 (with his famous specimen sheet produced in 1734). Stephenson Blake acquired the assets of H.W. Caslon and Sons in 1937.

Times New Roman: was designed by Stanley Morison (1889-1967) in collaboration with Victor Lardent (1905-1968) for The Times of London in 1931. Stephenson Blake was one of several foundries that produced the fonts.

Cheltenham: was originally designed in 1896 by architect Bertram Goodhue (1869-1924) and Ingalls Kimball (1874-1933), director of the Cheltenham Press. Stephenson Blake acquired the original matrices when they purchased Caslon.

Granby: issued in 1930, Granby was designed in-house at Stephenson Blake to compete with Futura and Gill Sans.

Playbill: a condensed "French Clarendon" serif typeface designed for Stephenson Blake in 1938 by Robert Harling (1910-2008).

View more fonts from Stephenson Blake.

View other type specimen books.

📸: Eli Josuha Adé, SMPSP via Michael B. Jordan

🙌🏾🔥🙌🏾🔥BEAUTIFUL!!!!!