Central Type Foundry

Typeface duscussion
October 16, 2005

Central Type Foundry
Typefaces of the Central Type Foundry in St. Louis as discussed by McGrew.

DeVinne

¶ De Vinne types were designed and named for Theodore L. De Vinne, one of the most prominent American printers of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. His De Vinne Press pioneered in various methods of producing high-quality books and magazines, and De Vinne himself had considerable influence on typeface design as well as printing methods and other aspects of the business, and was the author of several books on the subject; however, he was not the actual designer of these faces. DeVinne, as produced by Linotype in 1902, is a legible but plain version of modern roman, with long, thin serifs and considerable contrast. It does not appear in the 1907 book, Types of the DeVinnePress, although there are other very similar types. Other faces bearing the De Vinne name, described below, are more distinctive and much better known. They might be considered the first large type family, although they developed helter-skelter from several sources rather than being created as a unified family. DeVinne, the display face, is credited with bringing an end to the period of overly ornate and fanciful display faces of the nineteenth century, and with restoring the dignity of plain roman types. It is derived from faces generally known as Elzevir or French Oldstyle (q.v.). DeVinne says of it, "This face is the outcome of correspondence (1888-90) between the senior of the De Vinne Press (meaning himself) and Mr. J. A. St. John of the Central Type Foundry of St. Louis, concerning the need of plainer types of display, to replace the profusely ornamented types in fashion, of which the printers of that time had a surfeit. The DeVinne Press suggested a return to the simplicity of the true old-style character, but with the added features of thicker lines and adjusted proportion in shapes of letters. Mr. St. John approved, but insisted on grotesques to some capital letters in the belief that they would meet a general desire for more quaintness. Mr. Werner of the Central Type Foundry was instructed to draw and cut the proposed face in all sizes from 6- to 72-point, which task he executed with great ability. "The name given to this face by Mr. St. John is purely complimentary, for no member of the DeVinne Press has any claim on the style as inventor or designer. Its merits are largely due to Mr. Werner; its few faults of uncouth capitals show a desire to please eccentric tastes and to conform to old usage. The new face found welcome here and abroad; no advertising face of recent production had a greater sale." Thus De Vinne himself credits the face to Central Type Foundry and its design to Nicholas J. Werner, but Werner says, "To correct the general impression that Theodore L. De Vinne was the designer of the face named after him, I would state that it was the creation of my partner, Mr. (Gustav) Schroeder ." The design was patented under Schroeder's name in 1893. Central was part of the merger that formed American Type Founders Company in 1892, but continued to operate somewhat independently for a few more years. Meanwhile, DeVinne was copied by Dickinson, BB&S, Hansen, and Keystone foundries, and perhaps others-in fact, Keystone advertised that it patented the design in 1893, Connecticut Type Foundry copied it as Saunders, and Linotype as Title No.2. Dickinson called it "a companion series to Howland" (q.v.). When Monotype developed an attachment in 1903 to cast display sizes, DeVinne was the first type shown in their first announcement. Later ATF specimens showed this face and several derivatives as DeVinne No.2, probably because of adjustments to conform with standard alignment. DeVinne Italic and DeVinne Condensed were drawn by Werner and produced by Central in 1892 and copied by some other sources. Howland, shown by Dickinson in 1892, is essentially the same as DeVinne Condensed No.3, later shown by Keystone. ATF introduced DeVinne Extended in 1896, while BB&S showed DeVinne Compressed, Extra Compressed, and Rold in 1898-99. Keystone's DeVinne Title is another version of bold, not as wide as that of BB&S. In 1898 Frederic W. Goudy was asked to take the famous display type and make a book face of it. The resulting DeVinne Roman, Goudy's second type design, was cut the following year by the Central branch of ATF. DeVinne Slope, essentially the same design but sloped rather than a true italic, was cut by the foundry about the same time, perhaps from the same patterns as the roman. DeVinne Open or Outline and Italic also originated with Central. In the roman and smaller sizes of italic only the heavy strokes are outlined; in larger sizes of italic, certain thin strokes are also outlined. Monotype cut the open faces in 1913. DeVinne Shaded is another form of the outline, created by Dickinson in 1893; parts of the outline are much thicker than others. DeVinne Recut and Recut Outline, shown by BB&S, are not true members of this family, but are a revival of Woodward and Woodward Outline, designed by William A. Schraubstadter for Inland Type Foundry in 1894; there were also condensed, extra condensed, and extended versions, all "original" by Inland. DeVinneRecutItalic was a rename of Courts, by Werner about 1900, also from Inland. Compare McNally.

Globe Gothic

¶ Globe Gothic is a refinement of Taylor Gothic, designed about 1897 by ATF at the suggestion of Charles H. Taylor of the Boston Globe, and used extensively by that paper. But Taylor Gothic has mostly the same lowercase as Quentell, though with hairlines heavied a bit. ATF's Central Type Foundry branch in St. Louis claims to have originated Quentell (q.v.) in 1895 or earlier. The conversion to Taylor Gothic was designed by Joseph W. Phinney, while the redesign as Globe Gothic in about 1900 is credited to Morris Benton. It is a serifless, thick-and-thin face, distinguished by the high crossbar on E, F, and H. The angular end on the stems of V, W, and most lowercase letters. Globe Gothic Condensed, Extra Condensed, and Extended were designed by Benton about 1900. Globe Gothic Bold and its italic are also credited to Benton, in 1907 and 1908 respectively. But Frederic W. Goudy, in the book on his typefaces, says, "This type (Globe Gothic Bold), drawn at the suggestion of Joseph Phinney, followed in the main certain points which he wished brought out. It never had much vogue and is the least satisfactory (to me) of all my types." This is puzzling, as the bold departs somewhat from the style of the lighter weights, but is not at all characteristic of Goudy's work-nor of Benton's, for that matter. Studley of Inland Type Foundry was similar. Compare Ryerson Condensed, Radiant, Matthews, Pontiac, World Gothic.

Mid Gothic

¶ Mid Gothic was designed by Nicholas J. Werner for Central Type Foundry, probably just before that St. Louis foundry joined the merger that formed American Type Founders in 1892. It is an undistinguished gothic of nineteenth-century style, but is an interesting example of the way many of the earlier types were modified for Monotype. The original copy of this face for machine typesetting (6- to 12-point) was necessarily reproportioned to meet mechanical requirements; the same patterns were then used for display sizes and the result is series 176. Later the foundry design was copied much more exactly, with little or no modification, as series 276. Both versions have been shown in Monotype literature as Lining Gothic, Mid-Gothic, or Mid-Gothic No.2 at various times. The No.2 designation was applied to many foundry faces around the tur}:t of the century when they were adapted to standard alignment or when other slight changes were made. Hansen copied this face as Medium Gothic No. 7, and made an inline version as Boston Gothic (q.v.).

Othello

¶ Othello is a very heavy, squarish, narrow gothic letter, designed in 1934 by Morris F. Benton for ATF, as a revision of an 1884 face of the same name issued by Central Type Foundry in St. Louis, and inherited by ATF in 1892. It is distinguished by the diagonal ends on a number of strokes, the lowercase forms of the capitals M, N, and Y, and several other unusual characters. An alternate N appeared only in early showings. Compare Heading. A different Othello is shown under Imports in Appendix.

Quentell

¶ Quentell was drawn for ATF's Central Type Foundry branch in St. Louis; it has been ascribed to N. J. Werner, but a design patent was issued in 1895 to William S. Quentell, advertising manager of Armour & Company of Chicago, for whom the face was made. Two years later it was redrawn as Taylor Gothic by Joseph W. Phinney for ATF, and later redesigned as Globe Gothic (q.v.). Meanwhile, the original Quentell was slightly modified as Quentell No.2, and in that form continued to be shown in specimens along with its altered forms. See Pontiac.

Royal Script

¶ Royal Script originated with the Central Type Foundry branch of ATF in St. Louis in 1893. It is much like the later Typo Script, but wider. In spite of that similarity, it appeared in ATF specimen books as late as 1968. In the 24- and 30-point sizes there are normal and small versions of lowercase, caps being the same. Early specimens designated these large and small sizes as No.1 and No.2 respectively, later specimens as No. 551 and No. 552. Hansen's Newton Script is the same design.

Steelplate Script

¶ Steelplate Script was advertised by ATF in 1907 as "equal to copperplate printing." It originated with Central Type Foundry in 1888. It is a very delicate traditional connected script, suggestive of nineteenth-century styles. The lowercase is quite small, but in 24-point there is an alternate lowercase font which is smaller yet.

Victoria Italic

¶ Victoria Italic is a nineteenth-century design that retained its POPU- Vi larity for many years, and has been made under several names by a number sources. ATF's Central Type Foundry branch showed it as early as 1893, in K, i~ usual form without lowercase, but with several sizes on each of several bodies in the manner of Copperplate Gothic. In 1898 the Pacific States Type Foundry in San Francisco showed the face with lowercase as Pacific Victoria Italic, and about the same time ATF showed Regal Italic with essentially the same lowercase. Victoria Italic without lowercase has also been shown by Keystone and Hansen, as well as Monotype and Ludlow. It is a wide, monotone design with thin, pointed serifs, and was popular for a time for business forms and stationery as well as general printing. Compare Paragon Plate talic. Keystone also had Keystone Victoria, a similar upright design, without lowercase.

Servant

¶ Luc Devroye
School of Computer Science
McGill University
Montreal, Canada H3A 2K6
luc@cs.mcgill.ca
http://jeff.cs.mcgill.ca/~luc/index.html

	Typeface duscussion October 16, 2005 Central Type Foundry Typefaces of the Central Type Foundry in St. Louis as discussed by McGrew.
DeVinne	¶ De Vinne types were designed and named for Theodore L. De Vinne, one of the most prominent American printers of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. His De Vinne Press pioneered in various methods of producing high-quality books and magazines, and De Vinne himself had considerable influence on typeface design as well as printing methods and other aspects of the business, and was the author of several books on the subject; however, he was not the actual designer of these faces. DeVinne, as produced by Linotype in 1902, is a legible but plain version of modern roman, with long, thin serifs and considerable contrast. It does not appear in the 1907 book, Types of the DeVinnePress, although there are other very similar types. Other faces bearing the De Vinne name, described below, are more distinctive and much better known. They might be considered the first large type family, although they developed helter-skelter from several sources rather than being created as a unified family. DeVinne, the display face, is credited with bringing an end to the period of overly ornate and fanciful display faces of the nineteenth century, and with restoring the dignity of plain roman types. It is derived from faces generally known as Elzevir or French Oldstyle (q.v.). DeVinne says of it, "This face is the outcome of correspondence (1888-90) between the senior of the De Vinne Press (meaning himself) and Mr. J. A. St. John of the Central Type Foundry of St. Louis, concerning the need of plainer types of display, to replace the profusely ornamented types in fashion, of which the printers of that time had a surfeit. The DeVinne Press suggested a return to the simplicity of the true old-style character, but with the added features of thicker lines and adjusted proportion in shapes of letters. Mr. St. John approved, but insisted on grotesques to some capital letters in the belief that they would meet a general desire for more quaintness. Mr. Werner of the Central Type Foundry was instructed to draw and cut the proposed face in all sizes from 6- to 72-point, which task he executed with great ability. "The name given to this face by Mr. St. John is purely complimentary, for no member of the DeVinne Press has any claim on the style as inventor or designer. Its merits are largely due to Mr. Werner; its few faults of uncouth capitals show a desire to please eccentric tastes and to conform to old usage. The new face found welcome here and abroad; no advertising face of recent production had a greater sale." Thus De Vinne himself credits the face to Central Type Foundry and its design to Nicholas J. Werner, but Werner says, "To correct the general impression that Theodore L. De Vinne was the designer of the face named after him, I would state that it was the creation of my partner, Mr. (Gustav) Schroeder ." The design was patented under Schroeder's name in 1893. Central was part of the merger that formed American Type Founders Company in 1892, but continued to operate somewhat independently for a few more years. Meanwhile, DeVinne was copied by Dickinson, BB&S, Hansen, and Keystone foundries, and perhaps others-in fact, Keystone advertised that it patented the design in 1893, Connecticut Type Foundry copied it as Saunders, and Linotype as Title No.2. Dickinson called it "a companion series to Howland" (q.v.). When Monotype developed an attachment in 1903 to cast display sizes, DeVinne was the first type shown in their first announcement. Later ATF specimens showed this face and several derivatives as DeVinne No.2, probably because of adjustments to conform with standard alignment. DeVinne Italic and DeVinne Condensed were drawn by Werner and produced by Central in 1892 and copied by some other sources. Howland, shown by Dickinson in 1892, is essentially the same as DeVinne Condensed No.3, later shown by Keystone. ATF introduced DeVinne Extended in 1896, while BB&S showed DeVinne Compressed, Extra Compressed, and Rold in 1898-99. Keystone's DeVinne Title is another version of bold, not as wide as that of BB&S. In 1898 Frederic W. Goudy was asked to take the famous display type and make a book face of it. The resulting DeVinne Roman, Goudy's second type design, was cut the following year by the Central branch of ATF. DeVinne Slope, essentially the same design but sloped rather than a true italic, was cut by the foundry about the same time, perhaps from the same patterns as the roman. DeVinne Open or Outline and Italic also originated with Central. In the roman and smaller sizes of italic only the heavy strokes are outlined; in larger sizes of italic, certain thin strokes are also outlined. Monotype cut the open faces in 1913. DeVinne Shaded is another form of the outline, created by Dickinson in 1893; parts of the outline are much thicker than others. DeVinne Recut and Recut Outline, shown by BB&S, are not true members of this family, but are a revival of Woodward and Woodward Outline, designed by William A. Schraubstadter for Inland Type Foundry in 1894; there were also condensed, extra condensed, and extended versions, all "original" by Inland. DeVinneRecutItalic was a rename of Courts, by Werner about 1900, also from Inland. Compare McNally.
Globe Gothic	¶ Globe Gothic is a refinement of Taylor Gothic, designed about 1897 by ATF at the suggestion of Charles H. Taylor of the Boston Globe, and used extensively by that paper. But Taylor Gothic has mostly the same lowercase as Quentell, though with hairlines heavied a bit. ATF's Central Type Foundry branch in St. Louis claims to have originated Quentell (q.v.) in 1895 or earlier. The conversion to Taylor Gothic was designed by Joseph W. Phinney, while the redesign as Globe Gothic in about 1900 is credited to Morris Benton. It is a serifless, thick-and-thin face, distinguished by the high crossbar on E, F, and H. The angular end on the stems of V, W, and most lowercase letters. Globe Gothic Condensed, Extra Condensed, and Extended were designed by Benton about 1900. Globe Gothic Bold and its italic are also credited to Benton, in 1907 and 1908 respectively. But Frederic W. Goudy, in the book on his typefaces, says, "This type (Globe Gothic Bold), drawn at the suggestion of Joseph Phinney, followed in the main certain points which he wished brought out. It never had much vogue and is the least satisfactory (to me) of all my types." This is puzzling, as the bold departs somewhat from the style of the lighter weights, but is not at all characteristic of Goudy's work-nor of Benton's, for that matter. Studley of Inland Type Foundry was similar. Compare Ryerson Condensed, Radiant, Matthews, Pontiac, World Gothic.
Mid Gothic	¶ Mid Gothic was designed by Nicholas J. Werner for Central Type Foundry, probably just before that St. Louis foundry joined the merger that formed American Type Founders in 1892. It is an undistinguished gothic of nineteenth-century style, but is an interesting example of the way many of the earlier types were modified for Monotype. The original copy of this face for machine typesetting (6- to 12-point) was necessarily reproportioned to meet mechanical requirements; the same patterns were then used for display sizes and the result is series 176. Later the foundry design was copied much more exactly, with little or no modification, as series 276. Both versions have been shown in Monotype literature as Lining Gothic, Mid-Gothic, or Mid-Gothic No.2 at various times. The No.2 designation was applied to many foundry faces around the tur}:t of the century when they were adapted to standard alignment or when other slight changes were made. Hansen copied this face as Medium Gothic No. 7, and made an inline version as Boston Gothic (q.v.).
Othello	¶ Othello is a very heavy, squarish, narrow gothic letter, designed in 1934 by Morris F. Benton for ATF, as a revision of an 1884 face of the same name issued by Central Type Foundry in St. Louis, and inherited by ATF in 1892. It is distinguished by the diagonal ends on a number of strokes, the lowercase forms of the capitals M, N, and Y, and several other unusual characters. An alternate N appeared only in early showings. Compare Heading. A different Othello is shown under Imports in Appendix.
Quentell	¶ Quentell was drawn for ATF's Central Type Foundry branch in St. Louis; it has been ascribed to N. J. Werner, but a design patent was issued in 1895 to William S. Quentell, advertising manager of Armour & Company of Chicago, for whom the face was made. Two years later it was redrawn as Taylor Gothic by Joseph W. Phinney for ATF, and later redesigned as Globe Gothic (q.v.). Meanwhile, the original Quentell was slightly modified as Quentell No.2, and in that form continued to be shown in specimens along with its altered forms. See Pontiac.
Royal Script	¶ Royal Script originated with the Central Type Foundry branch of ATF in St. Louis in 1893. It is much like the later Typo Script, but wider. In spite of that similarity, it appeared in ATF specimen books as late as 1968. In the 24- and 30-point sizes there are normal and small versions of lowercase, caps being the same. Early specimens designated these large and small sizes as No.1 and No.2 respectively, later specimens as No. 551 and No. 552. Hansen's Newton Script is the same design.
Steelplate Script	¶ Steelplate Script was advertised by ATF in 1907 as "equal to copperplate printing." It originated with Central Type Foundry in 1888. It is a very delicate traditional connected script, suggestive of nineteenth-century styles. The lowercase is quite small, but in 24-point there is an alternate lowercase font which is smaller yet.
Victoria Italic	¶ Victoria Italic is a nineteenth-century design that retained its POPU- Vi larity for many years, and has been made under several names by a number sources. ATF's Central Type Foundry branch showed it as early as 1893, in K, i~ usual form without lowercase, but with several sizes on each of several bodies in the manner of Copperplate Gothic. In 1898 the Pacific States Type Foundry in San Francisco showed the face with lowercase as Pacific Victoria Italic, and about the same time ATF showed Regal Italic with essentially the same lowercase. Victoria Italic without lowercase has also been shown by Keystone and Hansen, as well as Monotype and Ludlow. It is a wide, monotone design with thin, pointed serifs, and was popular for a time for business forms and stationery as well as general printing. Compare Paragon Plate talic. Keystone also had Keystone Victoria, a similar upright design, without lowercase.
Servant	¶ Luc Devroye School of Computer Science McGill University Montreal, Canada H3A 2K6 luc@cs.mcgill.ca http://jeff.cs.mcgill.ca/~luc/index.html