Update: Blue Pencil no. 1 re: Civilité

Gilles Corre of GLC Fonts, in responding to a comment in Blue Pencil no. 1,  has pointed out that his website only shows pictures of his fonts and that information about their background can be found on MyFonts. His 1742 Civilité is derived from a model in Pierre Simon Fournier le jeune’s Modèles des caractères de l’imprimerie et des autres choses nécessaires au dit art nouvellement gravés par Simon-Pierre Fournier le jeune (1742). 

More about Sarah and Enoch

David Shields, Assistant Professor in the Design Division at the University of Texas at Austin and curator of the Rob Roy Kelly American Wood Type Collection, has pointed out that no. 21 in Nicolete Gray’s Chart of Ornamented Typefaces 1800–1900 (in her Nineteenth Century Ornamented Typefaces, rev. ed. 1976) may be the model for the Sarah and Enoch gravestone lettering. No. 21 is from New Specimen of Printing Types from the Fann Street Letter Foundry (London: William Thorowgood, Letter-Founder to his Majesty, late Thorne, 1825). Gray describes it simply as a Tuscan. The key letter in Gray’s sample is the P with its dimpled bowl. However, the O does not match. It would also be nice to see Thorowgood’s S. 

Gravestone typography part 3

This gravestone for Harriet D. Cross (d. 1840) in the Grove Cemetery is an example of the typographic epitaph I was speaking of earlier. It is not what I had hoped to show since it does not have a Fat Face or an Egyptian but the mix of elements (bold grotesque in relief, light grotesque incised, outlined grotesque in relief, and Tuscan in relief; and the cartouche backgrounds) certainly shows the influence of 19th c. display typography. 

In the Captain David Libby gravestone (posted earlier) also note the distinctive Fat Face 2, Fat Face Italic AE dipthong, and the decorative rule. 

More from Maine

The gravestones in Midcoast Maine reveal some other oddities. 

That of Mary Butman (d. 1848), wife of Samuel Butman, has an odd form of underscore in the abbreviation for Samuel: a short line under the l and below it three dots in increasing size.

That of Peter Hilt (d. 1845) has a similar underscore for the abbreviation of September: a thin short line under the t and below it two dots. 

I have never seen these forms of abbreviations before. Presumably, the same carver was responsible for the Mary Butman stone in the Gordon Cemetery (Searsport) and the Hilt stone in the cemetery on Route 225. 

The joint gravestone of Enoch P. (d. 1811) and Sarah (d. 1804) [last names unknown, but both children when they died and thus likely to have been brother and sister] has a very unusual ornamented letter for their names (in relief) as well as for DIED (incised). Despite the death dates the stone was carved in the 1850s or later since it is marble and not slate. The letter is clearly typographic in origin as a small example of it appears in American Wood Types: 1828–1900 by Rob Roy Kelly on p. 202. Kelly does not identify his source, only indicating that the face (and the others shown alongside it) were popular in the 1850s in France and England—thus supporting the assumption that the stone was carved later than the dates on it. In which country did the face originate? Which American foundries or wood type manufacturers offered it? Where did the stonecutter discover it?

Gravestone typography continued

Here are a few more examples of the lone decorative DIED from Maine cemeteries. The decorative capitals for John Cochran (which would have been carved in 1850 when his wife died, not in 1839 when he did) and Deacon Job Pendleton have been found on other gravestones. I suspect they are from a typefounder’s or wood type manufacturer’s specimen book, but I have not yet located it.

Dea. Job Pendleton (d. 1847) / unidentified cemetery on Rt. 235

John Cochran (d. 1839) and Mary Cochran (d. 1850) / Grove Cemetery / Belfast, Maine

a peculiar decorative letter for him with blackletter undertones and a simple gothic for her

Sumner Lothrop (d. 1863) / Grove Cemetery / Belfast, Maine

rimmed gothic with shading

Mary Griffin (d. 1845) / Grove Cemetery / Belfast. Maine

Caslon Italian

Capt. David H. Libby (d. 1836) / Grove Cemetery / Belfast, Maine

Caslon Italian in relief

Gravestone typography

During my vacation in Maine a few weeks I visited as many cemeteries as I could find in the mid-coast region with the aim of finding gravestones from the 18th century that showed evidence of vernacular carving. I failed miserably. The earliest stone I was able to locate was from 1798 and it was in poor condition. But what caught my eye were stones that were laid out and carved typographically. That is, they looked very much like the broadsides and ephemera of their time which was mainly the decades from 1820 to the Civil War. 

I am posting here rubbings I made from several of them of a single word: DIED. On each stone this word was given its own line and always carved in all capitals. The style of capitals of each is inspired by a contemporary typeface. I have not yet identified each of them, though most will look familiar to anyone knowledgeable about 19th century type designs.

The stones (and their general typographic styles) are: 

Rolando Servilius Pendleton (d. 1845) / unidentified cemetery on Route 235

Egyptian Italic

Frances A. Barstow (d. 1846) / Mt. Repose Cemetery / Route 3

Caslon Italian

Isaiah Steavens (d. 1847) / Mt. Repose Cemetery / Route 3

Gothic with shading

(d. 1848) / Mt. Repose Cemetery / Route 3

Chamfered Egyptian

John P. Stowers (d. 1848) / Sandy Point Cemetery

Captain Shepherd Blanchard (d. 1848) / Gordon Cemetery / Searsport, Maine

Fat Face with shading

Mary Butman (d. 1848) / Gordon Cemetery / Searsport, Maine

Egyptian

Josephine Spring (d. 1851) / Mt. Repose Cemetery / Route 3

Egyptian with shading

(d. 185?) / Mt. Repose Cemetery / Route 3

Reverse Italic Egyptian

Charles Gordon (d. 1873) / Gordon Cemetery / Searsport, Maine

Egyptian

Other type styles that appear on these stones are: Fat Face, Reverse Italic Fat Face, Gothic, and Reverse Italic Gothic. The question is: what happened c. 1820 to cause a radical change in gravestone epigraphy in New England?

Questo blog non è morto

When I began this blog I called it a slow blog. But I had no intention of making it this slow, to the point of appearing dead. My PowerMac hard drive died on Friday, March 13th and by the time I got my new iMac up and running (with all the right programs) I was too deep into classes and other projects to keep up with the blog. I had also begun the next Blue Pencil post which has proven much more difficult than planned. Although the book (which shall go unnamed at the moment) is only 258 pages long I am finding that it seems to have one incorrect fact for every correct one. Meanwhile, other books worth posting continue to appear. Tonight I decided to put one of them at the head of the queue and get it posted by the end of next week. Don’t despair. Blue Pencil is staying sharpened.