#typeface specimens

[uwmspeccoll]

Typography Tuesday

STEPHENSON BLAKE

Today we're showing a new acquisition from one of the giants of British type founding, Specimens of Printing Types from Stephenson, Blake, the Caslon Letter Foundry, Sheffield, published in Sheffield, England by Stephenson Blake & Co. in 1959. Stephenson Blake claims a lineage directly back to William Caxton, the founder of English type and printing in 1476. We think they stand on firmer ground, however, in also claiming descent from William Caslon, the founder of the first truly British typefaces beginning in 1734.

Silversmith and mechanic William Garnett and toolmaker John Stephenson began foundry operations in 1818 with financial support from James Blake. A year later, they acquired the firm of William Caslon III and IV, an offshoot of the Caslon family business. Garnett left the firm in 1829 and the company was renamed Blake & Stephenson in 1830, but Blake died soon after. Stephenson himself died in 1864 and passed the business onto his son Henry. The company was purchased in 1905 Sir Charles Reed and Sons, but the Stephenson name was retained. In 1937, the company purchased H.W. Caslon & Sons, the other branch of the storied Caslon dynasty, securing its right to claim full Caslon heritage.

Stephenson Blake continued to make some type until 2001, but it finally closed its foundry in 2005, with much of its historical stock going to the Type Archive in London. Because of financial issues, the Type Archive also had to close its doors in 2022, and the Stephenson Blake collection was transferred to the Victoria & Albert Museum as the interim custodian.

Shown here are some shaded typefaces and ornaments from the 1959 catalog.

View more Typography Tuesday posts.

[garadinervi]

Supplement No. 1 op onze letterproef van 1960, A. Damman Amsterdamsche Advertentie Zetterij en Stereotype-inrichting N.V., Amsterdam, 1962 [Letterform Archive, San Francisco, CA]

[searchsystem]

Neubau (NB) / NB Television™ Pro / Specimen / 2022

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[buromarks]

-https://awards.europeandesign.org/winner/260623

[stone-cold-groove]

Open come in.

[jozefondrik]

RL Zeta specimen. More Here

[drawdownbooks]

Harber Type Specimen (A2 version) by Benoît Bodhuin

Harber is a dot matrix design with variable axes for weight, slant, volume, noise, and optical size.

Published by Benoît Bodhuin, 2023

1 double-sided sheet, 5-color Risograph, 16.5 × 23.4 inches Ships folded, dimensions 8.3 × 11.7 inches

[the-book-design]

You Spin Me Round by – wonderyears.studio

[undonepal]

[circa-obsolete]

ca. 1874

[naesarchive]

[uwmspeccoll]

Typography Tuesday

Rebuild Something New, Revolutionary. Industrious Grand Intentions Wanted, Handy and Neat Combined. Stand Indian Maid, Ancient National Rambler: The Beauty American.

A little patriotic poem of Indigenous sovereignty and the American future from Brass Type, an early 20th-century type specimen book from the H. C. Hansen Type Foundry, Boston, Massachusetts. Hansen operated from 1872 to the early 1920s, and was the only independent type foundry remaining in Boston after the consolidation by the American Type Founders in 1892.

View other type specimen books.

View more Typography Tuesday posts.

[garadinervi]

Ziffern, (booklet, specimen), Schriftgiesserei "Amsterdam", n.d. [Letterform Archive, San Francisco, CA]

[searchsystem]

Semiotik Design Agency (SDA) / CoType Foundry / Aeonik Pro / Specimen / 2020

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[buromarks]

-https://apk-type.com/family/apk-galeria/

[stone-cold-groove]

You’ll like our tasty hamburgers!