Edition #5: Typographical Alphabets
Learn your ABCs and settle the sans versus serif debate at the same time.
If you’ve come across hand-painted lettering from before 1930, there’s a good chance it was pulled from these. Used mostly as references for sign artists or printers, these typographical alphabet prints — aka type specimens — would showcase the range of typefaces and styles they could draw from (literally and figuratively). In the late 1800s and into the early part of the 20th century, these prints were mostly done using chromo-lithography and housed in a book volume, though some could be hand illustrated.
1930's Art Deco Farbige Alphabete Plate 30 on eBay: This example is illustrated by Otto Heim in the 1930s. The deep blue contrasting with the red and yellow is just so satisfying to look at, though the elongated tittle over the lowercase i is a questionable design choice.
Gold Lithograph Antique Print Folio Plate Deco Letters Font on Etsy: You really can’t go wrong with a good drop shadow. While this typeface may not be the most practical for signage, it makes a really great art print.
Rare 1885 Typography Alphabet Gold Lithograph on Etsy: The stylization of these letters makes me want to peel them off of the page. This beige-y pink background color was prevalent in a few different examples.
Chromolithograph Antique Print Folio Plate on Etsy: While the date claims this is from the 1800s, I cannot see anything except for Spongebob. Nothing is ever new.
Antique Shape Alphabet on Etsy: I love that you get both color and font examples here. The 3rd option is my favorite of the bunch, but they’re all pretty great.
1885 Typography Alphabet Chromolithograph on Etsy: The 2000s Microsoft Wordart nostalgia is real with the one. I’m very into the ampersand shape that was chosen.
1930's Art Deco Farbige Alphabete Plate 11 on eBay: This is a later example than the others and it shows. It’s straight Gatsby in an alphabet. The orange and black combo is very pleasing, as well.
Rare 1885 Typography Alphabet Lithograph on Etsy: Idk about you, but it took me until this example to realize there was no W in certain examples because the artist would just use two V’s — plus, W in French is literally “double v”…
1930's Art Deco Farbige Alphabete Plate 27 on eBay: The thin green stripes are perfect against the bold black lettering and I love the outline of the name of the font, though I cannot for the life of me figure out what it says.
Alphabet Lithograph with Tailor signboard- 1905 on Etsy: This is my favorite example, because you can picture a person using this as a reference to paint the sign for their tailoring business at the turn of the century. It feels very human to me.
Honorable Mentions:
What terms were searched:
Typography alphabets
Reference chromolithograph
Type specimens
Manuel De Peintures
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