okay so unrelated but i did go looking for this tree in a catalog to see if i do actually have all t
okay so unrelated but i did go looking for this tree in a catalog to see if i do actually have all the pieces in the set and boy specimen books just make me Covet. the geometry!![image description: samples from Inland Type Foundry specimen books and catalogs, showing lead-cast decorative pieces that were available for purchase. This row of decoratives is mostly floral, varying degrees of representative; probably one is a poppy, some wheat? Definitely just some leaves. end description.]these weird creepy wavy suns!!this goat skull with, what, earrings???whatever the fuck these are. i don’t know, i want one.[image description: i really don’t know what to tell you. they’re like, floating bird skulls? with feathery hairdos and a bunch of. looping decorations hanging off them like necklaces? masquerade masks???? end description.]anyway font envy aside i still didn’t find the tree despite having a pin mark AND the number still visible on the body because there was a time when people didn’t realize that type catalogs were going to become an extremely rare & precious Artifact and they just cut proofs right out of the catalogs for paste-up & camera work for offset printing.[image description: a page of ornaments where some of the actual decorative pieces are completely absent. Their identification numbers sometimes remain, but sometimes whole pages of a scanned specimen book are just blank. end description.]:((( ah well. very sweet when someone’s gone to the trouble of scanning in a whole specimen book though! Inland Type Foundry specimen books: 1907 and 1897 - the type pages are also cool as hell and they all go in the front so decorative stuff doesn’t usually start until like a bit more than halfway in. -- source link
#letterpress#letterpress printing#typography#sort of