#type foundries

Typography Tuesday

New acquisition! A type specimen book from New York type foundry George Bruce's Son & Co., 1869. George Bruce (1781–1866) was a Scottish American printer and type founder. He and his older brother started off as type founders and printers in 1812 but jettisoned their printing business in 1816 to concentrate on founding type. His typefaces became widely popular among printers by the 1830s, and his company remained predominant for a generation. His son David Wolfe Bruce (1824–1895) took over the business after his father's death, and ran it until his retirement in 1890. The firm was eventually acquired, like so many other foundries, by American Type Founders.

Typography Tuesday: Decorative Borders and Initial Fragments!

Last week we presented some typographical “poetry” found in the type specimen book Specimens of Printing Types and Ornaments Cast by James Conner & Son, printed in New York by William L. S. Harrison for James Conner & Son in 1852. Along with letter forms, decorative rules, borders, dingbats, fleurons, arabesques, and other ornamental flourishes have long been a traditional part of the type display book. This week we present a few pages and details of decorative borders and ornamental type fragments that were also offered by Conner & Son.

In their introductory statement, the type foundry notes that with this publication they:

. . . issue a New and Enlarged Edition of our Specimens, embodying the latest novelties . . . . To our assortment of Ornamental Type and Bordering, we have made several additions -- both chaste and elegant in their design. . . . this series has been cut by the best letter cutter in Edinburgh, exclusively for our Foundry, and can not, of course, be had elsewhere.

View other type specimen books.

Typography Tuesday

As we’ve stated before, we just love the random, inadvertent poetry we find in type display books! Today we present some new finds from our most recent acquisition, Specimens of Printing Types and Ornaments Cast by James Conner & Son, printed in New York by William L, S, Harrison for James Conner & Son in 1852. 

The found poetry ranges from the lyrical:

The clouds at evening driven Pond lilies oily-leaved and pale. Rising up to meet thee, Years are bearing us to heaven. New faces greet thee At memory's magic sign.

Home of happiness and rest, Rippling water mirrors Reverberating echoes! Huge water oak and pine, Silver streamlet.

To the punchy and succinct: MERCHANT THOUGHT JEWELS!

But always remember:

The highest delight which poetry produces, does not arise from the mere passive perception of the images or sentiments which it presents to the mind.

View other type specimen books.

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