Time (Ireland) Act 1916 government notice
Contributed by Param Anand Singh on Jun 23rd, 2024. Artwork published in
September 1916
._Act_1916.jpg)
Source: en.wikipedia.org Lord Lieutenant of Ireland for the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. License: Public Domain.
A decent example of Miller & Richard’s Grotesque No. 4 Italic, which, for all its quirks, looks perfectly at home on a no-nonsense government notice. I particularly like the flinching f, echoed in Fred Smeijers’ vintage-inspired Ludwig, which uses it—quite pragmatically—in ligatures.
The other typefaces are mysteries to me, and I would appreciate any help in identifying them—especially the interloping 3s in “30th SEPTEMBER” and “3 a.m.” and the O in “On and after,” which differs a bit from the others.
Photo: Param Anand Singh. License: All Rights Reserved.
Ludwig Black and Black Italic by Fred Smeijers. The f flinches à la Grotesque No. 4 Italic to make way for l, f, t, and i, but stands (or leans) straight next to o. (The second f in “off” flinches in solidarity with the first, I suppose.)
3 Comments on “Time (Ireland) Act 1916 government notice”
Thank you, Param!
We managed to identify two more typefaces. “BY ORDER …” is in solid caps from a typeface that DeLittle carried in wood as Round Serif.
“TIME ACT” is another wood typeface that was sold by Stephenson Blake (and also by Caslon) as Runic Grotesque. Harrild & Sons showed a slightly wider cut of this design in their c.1890 catalog under the name Fancy Runic. Matthijs pointed out that Borutta Group’s digital WTC Banger (2012) appears to be based on the same source. So is MPI No. 507 (2013), which is a tad wider.
Thanks! That’s excellent sleuthing!
I added this image to the sans-serif Wikipedia article back in 2019 as part of a gallery I was creating of sans-serif lettering through time. I found it unusual to get a poster that uses this much sans-serif italic this early, normally in this period it’s roman and normally capitals.
Not completely certain where I found it, it could have been from this article (I vaguely remember once wondering if the UK and Republic ever had different time zones), or just looking around Wikimedia Commons.
Wikimedia Commons is good when looking for interesting old posters and designs. It’s not an infinitely large collection but the awesome community volunteer categorisation makes up for that because you can search by period easily, and the global community of users means there’s a chance of finding things you don’t see in UK or US-only archives (not, of course, that it covers everything, and I know the sans-serif gallery is a bit limited to Europe and America, that’s on me and I might expand the range at some point). Also good for looking at monumental lettering on plaques and graves which again have been heavily categorised by volunteer editors, at least in the UK: when I was doing this article, it was going to be showcased and I thought “oh wait, this needs a gallery” I was able to get one off the ground within about an hour. (Including one surprise that I was really pleased to find as it broadened the range of images-this 1937 inscription dedicating London Central Mosque, very much in the British monumental style of the time.)