Charles P. Bluemlein

This web page contains my imperfect scans of Script and Manuscript, a booklet published in 1944 by Higgins Ink Co in Brooklyn, New York.

It has 32 scripts due to the mysterious Charles P. Bluemlein who is said to be a master letterer, but on whom I have not been able to find the slightest information. Each is script is interpreted and analyzed by handwriting expert Dorothy Sara. Until I find evidence to the contrary, I have to assume that these are all ficititious characters.

All 32 alphabets were digitized and extended by Alejandro Paul (Sudtipos) using the same names suggested by "Bluemlein". The typeface shown in this paragraph is called Miss Lankfort. Alejandro writes From the early 1930s through World War II, there were about 200 professional hand letterers working in New York City alone. This occupation saw its demise with the advent of photo lettering, and after digital typography, became virtually extinct. So, there is a faint possibility that Bluemlein may have actually existed. The only other information I was able to find on the web, besides mention of the scanned book, is that there was a private Charles P. Bluemlein among the Men of Company "A" 346th Infantry, 87th Division World War I - 1919. This company was formed on 19 September 1917, trained at Camp Pike, Arkansas, and was deployed from Camp Dix to England and France. That would put the date of birth of Bluemlein around 1900, which is consistent with his 1944 picture shown below.

But then there is also this intriguing paragraph by Alison Argento, written when she designed Bender Script in 2008: Would you hire one of the top hand lettering artists that worked for companies like Max Factor for your designs? Of course you would! Chas Bluemlien passed away many years back, and you couldn't have afforded his services anyway, but his lettering prowess which graced many advertisements, primarily cosmetic ads, has been pulled together from numerous samples to make this font.

Jim Spiece's Kolinsky Sable SG (2004) is based on a 1944 brush script by Bluemlein called Mr. Ronald G. Sheppards, which is shown below.

The free font Lainie Day (1993, Soft Horizons) is nothing but Bluemlein's Mr. Alfred R. De Lackboughs (see below). In fact, there may be many many more free and commercial fonts that are based on the 32 alphabets shown in Bluemlein's booklet.
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Contact

Luc Devroye
School of Computer Science
McGill University
Montreal, Canada H3A 2K6
lucdevroye@gmail.com
http://cg.scs.carleton.ca/~luc