Barnhart Brothers&Spindler (or: BB&S)

TYPE DESIGN INFORMATION PAGE last updated on Tue Apr 30 19:18:47 EDT 2024

FONT RECOGNITION VIA FONT MOOSE




Barnhart Brothers&Spindler (or: BB&S) Chicago-based foundry, which grew out of The Great Western Type Foundry in 1868 when the Barnhart brothers (newspaper publishers in Iowa who came to Chicago as advertising agents) bought out the Toepfer family in 1868. They retained Herman Spindler as the foreman, since he was the only typefounder in the group. Aggressive in business, BB&S became the largest foundry in Chicago. Book of type specimens. Comprising a large variety of superior copper-mixed types, rules, borders, galleys, printing presses, electric-welded chases, paper and card cutters, wood goods, book binding machinery etc., together with valuable information to the craft. Specimen book no.9 (1907) is a 1048-page monster catalog (see also here and here and here). Some pictures from Type Barnhart Type Foundry Co. New York City: Superior Copper-Mixed Type (1908). In 1913, they published Preferred Type Faces. BB&S was purchased by ATF about 1911 and it operated independently until about 1930. Typophile page on them. Text file with a list of the typefaces in their Catalog 25 (1925). Discussion of some of their typefaces and digitizations: Engravers Upright Script, a ronde style alphabet, was revived in 2006 by Nick Curtis as Bon Mot NF. Hazel Script, a primary school didactic connected script, digitized in 2006 by Paul Hunt as P22 Allyson (discussed here). They made the (sloppy) old-look garalde typeface Fifteenth Century in 1897, which turned into Caslon Antique (American Type Founders). A digital version can be had at MyFonts, but who made it? MyFonts also offers Caslon Open Face (originally, 1915). One of their best known designers was Oswald B. Cooper who made Cooper Black (1921) and Cooper Old Style (1919-1924), with characteristically blurred rounded serifs. He also made Cooper Hilite (shaded), Cooper 570 (fat), Cooper 579 (outline), Cooper Tooled Italic (shaded) and Cooper Black Italic 571. Delysian NF (2004, Nick Curtis) revives their Greeting Card typeface from the BBS catalog of 1923. Lining Gothic No. 71 (1907) is a grotesque typeface with panache. It was digitized by Nick Curtis as Cerulean NF (2007). Mazurka NF (2004, Nick Curtis) is a combination of two typefaces from the same catalog, Swagger Capitals, designed by Carl S. Junge, for the uppercase and Gothic Novelty Title for the lowercase. Racine (1903) was revived by Nick Curtis as Kenosha Antique (2004). Archer (1905) was revived by Nick Curtis as Grand Rapids (2005). Umbra (1907) was revived by Nick Curtis as Shady Lady NF (2005). Monotype's Umbra is based on a later metal version by Ludlow though. One of their blackletter typefaces is Waldorf Text (1914). Steelplate, a monocase engraved US dollar bill-style face, ca. 1900 at BBS, was revived by Nick Curtis as Smackeroo NF (2005). Ernst Lauschke designed the oriental look typeface Dormer in 1888 at the Great Western Foundry. BB&S renamed it Pekin. HiH digitized it in 2005. Pekin also is the name of Dan Solo's revival. Freak (1889, The Great Western Type Foundry) was renamed Bamboo by BB&S. A digital version by Tom Wallace is also called Freak (2005). Parsons (1918, Will Ransom) was digitized by Jess Latham. Wedge Gothic ML (1893). An oriental simulation font. It was not in the 1907 catalog but reappeared in 1925 as Japanette. According to McGrew, Wedge Gothic was originally created for the Chicago Herald newspaper. Digital versions: Japanette (Infinitype), OPTI Japanette 5 (CastCraft), Wedge Gothic (2010, Tom Wallace), Japanette (2012, SoftMaker). Clearcut Shaded Capitals (1920s, Will Ransom). Extended to a full font by Nick Curtis in 2005 as Ransom Clearcut NF). Dotted Roman (1897, a Victorian typeface) was revived as Miss Dottie NF by Nick Curtis in 2014. The decorative wood type typeface French Antique, featured in the 1905 catalog, and originally due to William H. Page. Digital versions by Woodentype (Jordan Davies) and Nick Curtis (whose version of French Antique Extended is called Fran Tique NF (2008)). The wedge-serifed typeface Vulcan (1884) was revived by Nick Curtis in 2014 as Vulkan NF. Jeff Levine's Millinery JNL (2022) is based on the art nouveau font Sterling showcased in the 1907 Barnhart Brothers & Spindler specimen book. Wiki page. List of all BB&S typefaces compiled by the American Amateur Press Association in 2009. This includes a PDF file and an Excel spreadsheet. Digital typefaces that descend from Barnhart / BBS.	EXTERNAL LINKS Barnhart Brothers&Spindler (or: BB&S) [Buy fonts] MyFonts search Monotype search Fontspring search Google search INTERNAL LINKS Foundries of the 19th century ⦿ Extinct 20th century foundries ⦿ Font names/aliases ⦿ Wood Type ⦿ Type scene in Iowa ⦿ Type scene in Illinois ⦿ Type scene in New York ⦿ Nick Curtis ⦿ Cooper Black ⦿ Caslon ⦿ Jeff Levine's typefaces. ⦿