#ornamental initials

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Typography Tuesday

On Sunday we showcased the designs and illustrations from Green Arras written, illustrated, and designed by Laurence Housman (1865-1959) and published in London by John Lane The Bodley Head and in Chicago by Way and Williams in 1896. Another visual element in this volume is the use of elaborate, Arts and Crafts-style initials found throughout the book. Today we are showcasing all the initial letters used in the publication.

Their design is uncredited, but we suspect they were probably designed by Housman himself as they bear the same design elements found on the cover and in the borders for the frontispiece and title page that Housman designed.

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Typography Tuesday

More De Vinne Initials

This week we present a few more initials from Types of the De Vinne Press, published in New York by the De Vinne Press in 1907. The press was founded in 1883 by Theodore Low De Vinne (1828-1914), a co-founder of the prestigious Grolier Club and one of the leading commercial printers of his day, whose enterprise had a profound influence on American printing and typography.

De Vinne defines the initial as:

A large or ornamented letter at the beginning of a chapter or paragraph, as high as many lines of the text type by its side, and lining neatly with its first and last lines . . . .

He further states that "A proper initial at the beginning of a first paragraph always gives attractiveness to the composition. It is the feature that first catches the eye." These initials certainly do.

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Typography Tuesday

This week we present some type and wood-engraved initials from an edition of Alfred Lord Tennyson's Lyric Poems by the Vale Press, printed in London at the Ballantyne Press in an edition of 320 copies in 1900. British artist, illustrator, printer, and book and type designer Charles Ricketts (1866-1931) founded the Vale Press in 1896 and designed three typefaces for the press. The most commonly used typeface was Vale Type, which is used here. Ricketts also used over 100 ornamental initials which he designed and engraved, several of which are shown here. To make the initials, Ricketts would draw the designs in ink, and then would paste a number of designs onto a single sheet. These were then photographed onto a woodblock, engraved by Ricketts, and finally separated when they were electrotyped.

The Art Nouveau-style border design in the first image was designed by Ricketts and engraved in wood by Charles Edward Keats, who began working for Ricketts in 1899. As Ricketts did not own the requisite printing equipment for his enterprise, he established a relationship with the venerable Edinburgh-founded Ballantyne Press, and this edition was printed by Charles John Holmes, who worked for Ballantyne and became the manager for Vale.

This copy of Lyric Poems is another gift from our friend Jerry Buff.

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Typography Tuesday

These woodcut historiated initials were designed by the Flemish artist Pieter Van der Borcht (c. 1530-1608) and cut by Anton Van Leest in 1571 for the famed Antwerp printer Christophe Plantin (c. 1520-1589), and first used in a luxurious Missal of the composer and choirmaster Georges de la Hèle (1547-1586) in 1578.

These images are from Ornamental Initials, The Woodcut Initials of Christopher Plantin by the American type designer and stonecutter Stephen Harvard, published in 1974 by the American Friends of the Plantin-Moretus Museum in New York, and printed at the Stinehour Press with design and lettering by Stephen Harvard. About these initials, Harvard notes:

Each letter has an intricate border of the typical sixteenth-century Netherlands grotesque, a jungle of convoluted strapwork and scrollwork inhabited by fantastic beasts and swags of fruit. The central portion contains an illustration from scripture appropriate to the letter: C for Christopher, D for Daniel, E for Esau, and so forth. This was a recurring feature of Renaissance woodcut initials of all countries and is traceable to a similar practice in illuminated manuscripts.

Our copy of Ornamental Initials is a donation from our friend Jerry Buff.

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Typography Tuesday

LETTRE CADEAU

On this last #Typography Tuesday of 2022 we present a few examples of what is known as Lettre Cadeau from Ornamental Initials,The Woodcut Initials of Christopher Plantin by the American type designer and stonecutter Stephen Harvard, published in 1974 by the American Friends of the Plantin-Moretus Museum in New York, and printed at the Stinehour Press with design and lettering by Stephen Harvard.  

Cadeau or cadel which means “gift,” are a form of embellished letters that were first created by Jean Flamel, secretary to Duc de Berry at the turn of the 15th century. The term appears to be derived from the Latin catellus (small chain) because of the shape of the pen strokes that often create a series of diamond shapes within the letter. In the manuscript tradition, lettre cadeau were applied most often to writs, patents, and other documents of legal and lasting value. Since copies of such documents would not include ornamented initials, those ornamented with cadeau would be understood as being the original document.

These ornamented letters found their way into the print tradition as ornamental woodcut initials. The notable sixteenth-century Antwerp printer Christophe Plantin had a series of lettre cadeau cut for his use between 1563 and 1585. These initials are preserved at the Plantin-Moretus Museum in Antwerp. Shown here are examples from series 36 to 41 in the museum’s collection of ornamental woodcut initials. Click or tap on the images for details.

Our copy of Ornamental Initials is once again a gift from our friend Jerry Buff.

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Typography Tuesday

Shown here are some examples woodcut floriated initials used by notable sixteenth-century Antwerp printer Christophe Plantin from Series 4 and 7 in the ornamental initials collection at the Plantin-Moretus Museum in Antwerp. These examples come from Ornamental Initials,The Woodcut Initials of Christopher Plantin by the American type designer and stonecutter Stephen Harvard, published in 1974 by the American Friends of the Plantin-Moretus Museum in New York, and printed at the Stinehour Press with design and lettering by Stephen Harvard. The catalogue assembles, for the first time since the 16th century, the entire collection of decorative initials that Christophe Plantin acquired. Fifty-eight different series of initials are reproduced in their original size in the catalogue.

The initials shown here were cut by Gerard Van Kampen who cut a number of large initials for Plantin, mainly for music printing. Most of the initials above are from Series 4, which were probably cut in 1567. The first two images show the original block and the letter A printed from it. The last two letters, C and E, are from Series 7, cut by Van Kampen around 1578.

Our copy is another gift from our friend Jerry Buff.

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Typography Tuesday

PLANTIN’S HEBREW AND GREEK ORNAMENTAL TYPE

The very-notable sixteenth-century Antwerp printer Christophe Plantin amassed an enormous collection of wood-cut ornamental initials for his many book projects, but when he embarked on the most ambitious project of his career, a multi-volume, folio-sized polyglot Bible for the king of Spain, he needed to have Hebrew and Greek initials cut for those languages. The floriated Hebrew and Greek initials shown here were designed for Plantin by French painter and draughtsman Geoffroy Ballain. The Hebrew font was cut by Cornelis Muller, from the noted family of Dutch engravers, and the Greek by the Flemish woodcut artist Arnold Nicolai.

These initials are from series 13 and 14 in the ornamental initials collection at the Plantin-Moretus Museum in Antwerp, and are drawn form the collection’s complete catalogue, Ornamental Initials, The Woodcut Initials of Christopher Plantin by the American type designer and stonecutter Stephen Harvard, published in 1974 by the American Friends of the Plantin-Moretus Museum in New York, and printed at the Stinehour Press with design and lettering by Stephen Harvard. The catalogue assembles, for the first time since the 16th century, the entire collection of decorative initials that Christophe Plantin acquired. Fifty-eight different series of initials are reproduced in their original size in the catalogue..

Our copy is another gift from our friend Jerry Buff.

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Typography Tuesday

Last week we brought you specimens of wood type from Types of the De Vinne Press, published in New York by the De Vinne Press in 1907. This week we present some historiated and fancy-pants initials from the same volume. 

Of the use of ornamented initials, De Vinne Press founder Theodore Low De Vinne (1828-1914) writes: “A proper initial at the beginning of a first paragraph always gives attractiveness to the composition. It is the feature that first catches the eye. The letter selected for this service may be plain or ornamented, but it should be fitting in size and style and appropriate to the subject.”

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