Letter Perfect

above and below, two dramatically different Journal covers by the (Brooklyn!) master penman William E. Dennis (1860-1924).

Volumetric, constructed lettering with elaborate shadowing had its heyday in the 1890s to early 1900s.
Beautiful examples were found on stock certificates and maps (see BibliOdyssey for a collection of Sanborn map details)

 

No Bezier curves here!

 

Charles Paxton Zaner

A Journal cover created by a lesser hand (in my opinion) employing the ubiquitous
calligraphic bird flourish, a common practice device.
The penmen all too often literally "put a bird on it."

Much of what penman were hired for were business documents like these checks and vouchers.
This has hand written directions for the engraver and electrotyper.

Rules for drawing drop shadows

Commemorative cartouche for Ulysses S Grant, and "President" detail by Daniel T. Ames, 1868.
I believe Ames created the large ornament-choked plaque that still exists in the lobby of
the original Cooper Union building. Mid-nineteenth century lettering is usually fussier than later examples,
and typically employed more flourishes and scrollwork.

The Zaner-Bloser Collection at the University of Scranton is one of the largest collections of American ornamental penmanship of the later 19th and early 20th centuries.

The company was founded in 1888 by Charles Paxton Zaner as the Zanerian School of Penmanship. Elmer W. Bloser purchased a share of the company in 1891 and in 1895 the school changed its name to the Zaner-Bloser Company. They began publishing their own penmanship manuals. The school prepared students for careers as penmen. Penmen were essential to business, preparing legal vouchers, monetary notes, ledgers, writing correspondence and creating documents before the invention of the typewriter. They also created most advertising display lettering. Zaner-Bloser also taught students to become illustrators, engravers, and engrossers. Engrossing is the type of ornamental lettering used on diplomas, commemorative documents, and certificates. To my astonishment, Zaner-Bloser is still in business and--swimming against the proverbial tide--continues penmanship instruction today.

The Scranton collection is incredible and includes professional journals, hand writing manuals, instructional material for children, photographs of children learning to write, scrapbooks containing examples of ornamental penmanship done by master penmen and more. A good portion of this is digitized and downloadable in large sizes!

Madoo*

The gingko grove at Madoo is underplanted with boxwood trimmed into balls.
The plantings invade the path in an intriguing breaking-the-fourth-wall sort of way.

brightly painted details are part of Madoo's personal, idiosyncratic charm

photo by Madoo Conservancy

the Chinese bridge with vintage Lloyd Loom bench

 

 

The garden paths all vary—each with different inlays.
These are slices of telephone poles.

Inside Dash's "summer house": hand-splattered floors and painted wicker

the painting studio

Bob Dash, Rain Across Sage Fields, 1975

Bob Dash, Pasture on the Hill, 1964

Bob Dash, The Terrace, 1975

Dash in the garden, photo by Madoo Conservancy

Robert Dash in the summer studio building, 2009, photo by Edible East End

Madoo, the petite and poetic garden tucked away in Sagaponack on the South Fork of Long Island, is the legacy of the late Robert Dash, poet, painter, gardener, eccentric personality and acerbic wit. It's just shy of two acres but brimming with personal flourishes and historical references. The now verdant hideaway was barren land when Dash stumbled upon the property in 1967. Only a few ramshackle 18th and 19th century barns and out buildings delineated the plot which sat amidst neighboring potato farms. Dash set about creating the garden “blunder by blunder, increment by increment,” moving and renovating the buildings, adding antiques, statuary, cast-offs—fashioning enchanting tableaux in miniature along meandering pathways. It is this labyrinthine quality that imparts an Alice in Wonderland feel. Within its compact confines, Madoo features a "summer studio", the winter house, a "knot garden" (ground cover clipped into a woven motif) based on Tudor designs, a rose walk and rill complete with forced perspective, a quincunx bed, and an herb and vegetable kitchen garden recalling medieval potagers, among other highlights. The garden's "ever-changing" roster brings together roses, elephant garlic, yews, laburnum with ivy and clematis, ginkos and boxwood, and asparagus left to feather. I know next to nothing about gardening but it was just this mashup of high and low, historical and whimsical that enchanted me. Director Alejandro Saralegui, who gave me a personal tour in June, keeps Madoo a vibrant cultural presence with classes, tours, and events.

Dash was a poet -- starting off in the Beat era of the 1950s and 60s—and a self-taught painter of some renown. There is a show of the work of Dash and Fairfield Porter (a friend) at the Parrish Art Museum in WatermIll, through October 26.

*Madoo is "my dove" in Old Scots.

Madoo Conservancy, 618 Sagg Main Street, Sagaponack, NY 11962 (631) 537-8201

Madoo Conservancy PO Box 362/618 Sagg Main Street Sagaponack, NY 119 - See more at: http://www.madoo.org/#sthash.Rbik05GT.dpuf

The Madoo Conservancy PO Box 362/618 Sagg Main Street Sagaponack, NY 11962 Tel. (631) 537-8200 - See more at: http://www.madoo.org/#sthash.Rbik05GT.dpuf

The Madoo Conservancy PO Box 362/618 Sagg Main Street Sagaponack, NY 11962 Tel. (631) 537-8200 - See more at: http://www.madoo.org/#sthash.Rbik05GT.dpuf

"Anyone know what typeface this is?"

 

Often (younger) designers will post a vintage image and say "Anyone know what typeface this is?" They don't realize that from the 1920s through the 1950s (into the 60s too, but less so) much of the decorative display text and headlines in advertising was hand lettered. Of course the late 19th century and early 20th had lots of hand lettering too-- but often these were such elaborate extravaganzas no one would mistake them for a typeface. Decorative lettering of that sort-- what you'd see on certificates or legal documents-- was called "engrossing." Hand letterers-- or "penmen"-- were a major commercial force in the 19th to mid-20th centuries and there were dozens of highly esteemed penmanship schools around the country. Next post, I'll focus on the Zaner-Bloser penmanship school -- it'll blow your mind. As an aside, there are several digital typefaces that have been created that are based on handlettering. See Zaner script for example.//

A friend gave me this wonderful 1927 style guide for commercial hand letterers last night. It was so fantastic that it inspired me to finally end my long absence from this space. So if there's anyone out there still reading this blog-- enjoy!

B. de B. at the TDC

B. de B. on view at the Type Directors Club through March

see all the prints at www.b-de-b.com

 

B. de B. is a project of The Graphics Office. It's a growing collection of historically-based designs that rescues ephemera from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and reimagines it for the twenty-first.

Our alphabet prints are inspired by nineteenth-century British children’s educationalchapbooks, pamphlets of rhymes, folklore, and news that were sold on the street for pennies.

We created this series with images and letters from a large, antique scrapbook made in England in the 1830s, which we bought a few years ago. "B. de B. Russell Juvenile Album" stamped onto the cover led us to trace its long ago owner Blois de Blois Russell, a young man of privilege with a strikingly unusual name. He attended Oxford, rowed crew, and died at 22.The prints are on view through March at the Type Directors Club: 347 West 36th Street, Suite 603.

Come visit at upcoming events like Book Night: Present & Tense (Thursday, March 13) and Designers in the Nursery: A Look at Picture Books by Graphic Artists (Tuesday, March 18)

There are three sizes of prints on heavy, bright white archival stock available for order at
www.b-de-b.com:  8 x 10 inches   •  18 x 24 inches   •  24 x 33 inches