Released in 1963, Thelonious Monk's first album for Columbia Records features all-caps Jessen-Schrift for the artist's name and album title and Palatino for the tracklist. On the back cover, liner notes and tracklist are written in Optima.

While the album art designer is unknown, the photo used was taken by Columbia photographer Don Hunstein.

[More info on Discogs]

Gotico-Antiqua, proto-roman, hybrid, 15th-century types between gothic and roman. Conference papers & exhibition catalogue. Edited and designed by Jérôme Knebusch. Co-publication Poem & Atelier National de Recherche Typographique [ANRT].

The bilingual publication (English and French) brings together researchers from the fields of typography, palaeography and incunabula studies, with a particular focus on type and letterforms. The relatively understudied period – after Gutenberg and before the consolidation of Jenson’s model – extends from the earliest traces of ‘humanistic’ tendencies to ‘pure’ roman type, including many cases of uncertain or experimental design, voluntary hybridisation and proto- or archaic roman. In 1459 in Mainz, Johann Fust and Peter Schöffer printed the Rationale Divinorum Officiorum by Guillaume Durand, using a typeface (now known as ‘Durandus’) that looked like no other before. From that point, we can follow a wide variety of developments, partly related to the travels of early printers from the Rhine area to Italy and France. By extension, the private press movement initiated by William Morris and Emery Walker at the end of the nineteenth century in England, revived some of those typefaces before they were once more largely forgotten.

Essays by Olivier Deloignon, Riccardo Olocco, Martina Meier, Nikolaus Weichselbaumer & Mathias Seuret, Dan Reynolds, Christopher Burke, Ferdinand Ulrich, Rafael Ribas & Alexis Faudot, Jérôme Knebusch. Foreword by Christelle Kirchstetter and Thomas Huot-Marchand.

The primary fonts used for typesetting the book are Almost Roman and Almost Gothic. Almost is complemented by Adobe Jenson, Alte Schwabacher, DTL Flamande, Jenson Rotunda (not pictured here). The book additionally showcases all 16 digital fonts (15 typefaces and one set of initials) made as part of ANRT’s Gotico-Antiqua project, produced by Rafael Ribas and Alexis Faudot and released in 2019 under the SIL Open Font License. Finally, the book has images of many other related typefaces which are discussed in the essays. These include Unger-Fraktur, Centralschrift, Morris Troy, ITC Golden Type, or Fanfare, to name but a few.

More information on the website of Poem editions

Spread with glyph sets of the 15 digital Gotico-Antiqua revivals. Not shown here are the Zainer Initials.

Unpublished flower, Kratzdistel [thistle].

Rudolf Koch started to draw wild flowers in 1922. He explains that he “collected [flowers] at random and without any particular aim. I sketched only the ones which grew in and around Offenbach … This collection is intended to give people a taste of summer while it is winter.” One member of Koch’s Werkstatt, the young Fritz Kredel, engraved most of the 250 drawings. The flowers were printed from woodcuts and entirely hand coloured. The remarkable edition of Das Blumenbuch [The Flower Book] was published several times between 1929 and 1942, from small pocket book editions to precious volumes and portfolios, involving many collaborators, printers, and publishers like Mainzer Presse, Ernst-Ludwig-Presse in Darmstadt, and Insel-Verlag, Leipzig.

About the Blumenbuch, an essay by Jérôme Knebusch, compiles a detailed chronology of the different editions and presents rare and unpublished material from the archives of the Klingspor Museum, Offenbach. It is the first of the Poem Pamphlet series co-edited with Alice Savoie.

Designed by the author and typeset in Instant, Almost (unreleased italic), and Jessen “Cicero”, the 12pt version Koch cut for the Blumenbuch. Digital revival by Alexis Faudot & Rafael Ribas, after a workshop at ESAD •Valence in 2016 (freely available from ANRT’s GitHub).

More info at poem-editions.com.

Rudolf Koch’s letter to Ernst Kellner, 1933. Typeset in Jessen.

Waldkerbel [woodchervil], Rudolf Koch’s original drawing, undated.

Waldkerbel [woodchervil], woodblock by Fritz Kredel.

Typeset in Instant Heavy and Almost italic (unreleased).

Typeset in Instant Heavy and Almost Italic (unreleased).

Title plate of the limited portfolio edition. Calligraphy by Berthold Wolpe. Cut in wood by Fritz Kredel.

Fritz Kredel’s signature at the back of a woodblock.

Source: www.ebay.ie License: All Rights Reserved.

Gill Sans with Futura-like alternates

The Hotel Goldener Hirsch in Rothenburg, Germany apparently used these luggage labels over a long period of time. There are at least three versions – all undated – which can be distinguished by small differences. The most obvious one is the small type used for crediting the artist responsible for the woodcut. There is 1) Jessen-Schrift, 2) Gill Sans (shown above), and 3) Bodoni-Kursiv, although not necessarily in this chronological order.

The woodcut showing the “Golden Stag” stays the same. So does the larger type. It’s Rudolf Koch’s Neuland (16pt, with an alternate C?), paired with the hatched Ege-Schrift by Eduard Ege. The two all-caps typefaces were both released in 1923. In version 1, the word “HOTEL” is set with tighter spacing, and the Rothenburg skyline with the coat of arms are better defined. The other two versions appear to differ in the same way for these details.

Willi Foerster (stylized: Fœrster) was a local graphic artist and painter who lived from 1892 to 1965. From 1908 to 1910, he studied under Otto Ludwig Naegele in Munich.

Source: www.hotel-goldener-hirsch.de License: All Rights Reserved.

Designed by Rudolf Koch from 1924 on, Jessen-Schrift was released by Gebr. Klingspor in 1930.

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An unidentified version of Bodoni-Kursiv. Judging from W and t, it might be Schriftguss AG’s cut from 1928.

Source: www.ebay.ie License: All Rights Reserved.

Another undated luggage label for the same hotel, using three sizes of the Neuland series (14, 20, 10pt).

A rather short, but jolly fellow came into my shop yesterday — said that he needed some of these quickly. He had no cash, but promised to put something under my tree tomorrow. Nice enough guy, but he kept saying ho, ho, ho every few words, which kind of got old. Has anyone had dealings with this guy before?

Paul Ritscher:

The mailman dropped off two wonderful packages today, the first being a booklet printed by Valenti Angelo in 1963. A compilation of quotes dealing with human rights, something that was in the forefront of the thoughts of the American people in 1963. Printed in three colors using Jessen-Schrift types, this booklet has become difficult to find.

Printed on one of his hand-presses On Human Rights was printed in December 1963, during those dark days that followed the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. For someone who appreciated thoughtful people as much as he did, this must have been a difficult production for Valenti. That it was printed in an edition of 50 copies makes it a precious addition to my library.

Valenti Angelo’s humanity is reflected in many of his publications. A very religious man he lived his life by the principles he absorbed through the teachings of the Catholic Church. Not only was he a printer and illustrator, but he was a very accomplished painter and sculptor, and designed a number of books for the Limited Editions Club.