Harrild & Sons woodcut fonts?

[Ryan Maelhorn]

This topic was imported from the Typophile platform

I've scoured the internet and it seems that these great woodcut fonts by Harrild & Sons were never digitized.

Does anybody here have anymore info about these fonts? Does anyone know if the actual woodblock themselves are still around? I am particularly interested in the "Regent" font that spells out the word "GARDENS" in this specimen from 1906.

If there is nothing else available, what is your opinion of the possibility on creating a complete uppercase alphabet and numerals from this one specimen? Also, is there any information available on how one might do this? I've been looking for some writing about doing such things for awhile now. Call it, "how to make a complete font set from one letter" or something like that. Obviously this type has been done before, such as when old fonts are updated with characters they didn't originally contain.

http://maelhorn.com/xtra/harrild_woodcut_fonts.png

(note to webmaster, the insert image function and the attachment function are not working. "onHTTPError: 500" and "An HTTP error 0 occurred. /upload/js" respectively.)

[oldnick]

Actual printing blocks may still be extant; however, finding them can be problematic.

And, yes, it's possible to create a complete character from a small number of visual cues. For example, this typeface was developed solely from the letters "Riquet"…

http://www.myfonts.com/fonts/bitstream/picayune-intelligence-bt/roman/

If you can detect a pattern, you can extrapolate; however, such detection and extrapolation are not skills which can be easily taught.

[Nick Shinn]

"how to make a complete font set from one letter"

Just get on with it.
The problem is clearly defined in the design precept of Regent.

[marcox]

Like Nick says, much of the information you need is contained in the sample.

Each letter in GARDENS provides directions for handling that class of letters:

- G for round letters like C and O
- R for letters like P and B
- N for its siblings/cousins M and Z

...etc.

Find other types from the period, or in the same style, or from the same foundry, to absorb the zeitgeist that informed the design decisions.

[Ryan Maelhorn]

Yeah I think the numerals will be the hardest. There's really no place to put that interesting "plus sign serif" I'll call it, that appears in the lower lefthand corner of the letters. Except for "5," I could see it working there.

[Riccardo Sartori]

Look at S.

[Ryan Maelhorn]

Yeah the S is a good model for 5, but what about 9? or 8? I cant see the plus sign working there at all. What do you all think?

[Riccardo Sartori]

I don’t see them as “plus serifs”, I see them as tabs, as the visible part of a letter put into the ground, like the little boards where you write the name of the plants in a garden.
And seriously you don’t see the relationship between S and 8?
By the way, I think numerals would be the last of your worries (and, more often than not, this kind of typeface didn’t even had numerals).

[Ryan Maelhorn]

Well, whatever they are, its definitely what draws me to the design. I have never seen anything like it before. Take them away and its basically just a Tuscan.

[Nick Shinn]

There were several “Upstairs–Downstairs” designs at the time.

[oldnick]

Try these shape-mates:

G: C O Q U 6 9 €
A: V W X Y 4
R: B K P 3
D: H I J Ð
E: F L Z 7
N: M
S: 2 5 8 $ ?