Collection of lithograph and steel-engraved plates for sign-making by [TYPOGRAPHY.] - 1830s: Letterforms for Sign-Making

Letterforms for Signage

[TYPOGRAPHY.] Collection of 5 lithograph and 20 steel engraved plates on typography for sign-making, from the Journal 'Journal de Peintres en batiment et decors'. Paris, ca 1830.

Tall 8vo (234 x 150mm), ll. 20, of which 20 steel engravings and 5 lithograph plates; contemporary cloth-backed marbled boards.

A fascinating private collection of plates illustrating various aspects of sign-making, all collected from the Journal des Peintres en bâtiment et en décors, from the 1830s. The use of painted letters for signs became very popular in the1830s, echoing a strong demand from shopkeepers. Everyone wanted their name written in red or gold letters on their shop front, which was criticised by sign historians at the end of the 19th century as a laughable sign of contemporary narcissism. The Journal des Peintres en bâtiment et en décors presents models of "fashionable" alphabets, gives ratios for scaling up, instruction in perspective drawing and suggestions on how to represent shadows for three dimensional effects.

With the increasing popularity of advertising, the nineteenth century saw the development of bold lettering and the arrival of types of letterform that were not simply larger versions of body text faces. Amongst them sans-serif, slab-serif and new styles of bold blackletter, but also letters that emboldened or decorated the roman type form. These were known as 'fat faces', these showed magnified contrast, keeping the thin parts of the letter slender while magnifying the vertical strokes massively. Others copied stonecutters lettering or added other three dimensional effects.

see Anne-Sophie Aguilar et Éléonore Challine, Enseignes réelles, enseignes rêvées, Discours et réalités de l'enseigne commerciale au XIXe siècle.