Old Emerson Typeface

[hrant]

This topic was imported from the Typophile platform

I'm looking for everything/anything on the
Emerson face (originally made in the 1930s).

hhp

[John Nolan]

Hrant:
You've read Blumenthal's Typographic Years, right?

FWIW, there's a small showing in An Atlas of Typeforms (Sutton and Bartram).

I suppose you want something a bit more definitive.

[hrant]

> You’ve read Blumenthal’s Typographic Years, right?

{Blush}
But UCLA has it, so I'll get it soon.

I saw the Atlas thing, plus the Jaspert entry. There's also something in Consuegra's "American Type Design and Designers". Since Atlas says it's an "original" design, I don't know if I'll find what I'm looking for: Blumenthal's possible inspirations for that amazing "a" and the hybrid numerals (the earliest example I've found so far - ATF Garamond's are way too mild to count for me).

hhp

[John Nolan]

Actually, there's not all that much about the design itself in Typographic Years, but there are a few examples of it in use.

[raph]

There's also a chapter on Spiral / Emerson in American Proprietary Typefaces. Recommended.

[hrant]

Does it say anything about what might have inspired Blumenthal?

hhp

[bieler]

Hrant

Beatrice Warde (with additions by John Dreyfus in 1984) did an analysis of the various Monotype text typefaces in, I think, the Monotype Recorder (1960s?). I have a copy of Monotype Composition Faces that was put out by Harold Berliner's Typefoundry that, as far as I can understand it, replicates the Warde work.

It gives a bit of information about the origins, history, and use of the various faces, showing text settings using a page from The Crystal Goblet as a template. Each page has a sidebar of microtypographic showings (likely the Dreyfus contribution).

Emerson is included. To quote, "one of a number of 20th-century faces which have been designed especially to meet the demands of modern printing processes and paper surfaces." This was a concern promoted by Warde in her later writings. There were a number of her studies, published in fugitive sources, that have never been compiled.

Gerald

[hrant]

Thanks Gerald.
Do any of those sources provide particularly good/complete print samples?

hhp

[bieler]

Hrant

I've got a specimen of it that shows the full character set in 10 pt plus text settings in 8, 10, 11, 12, 14, 18, and display setting in 24. According to the sheet the Monotype version is number 320, issued in 1935. It was originally cut by Bauer in 1930 as Spiral. There was an article on Emerson in Signature by Reynolds Stone.

I might have others but this was readily at hand.

Gerald

[John Nolan]

Emerson is used to set one of the articles in Books and Printing: A Treasury for Typophiles.

[hrant]

Gerald, more great info - thanks.
Do you have a scanner? And time? :-) Or if it's not between semesters right now could I come by your class, borrow it, and bring it back? Basically I'm wondering if there are other glyphs beside the "a" that are both so fine and so unique. And the other thing is the derivation of the numerals - I wonder if that Signature article says anything about that, or any possible derivation of the font in general; I've been trying to track down the first case of hybrid numerals for a while now...

John, another thing to pick up from UCLA then - thanks.

hhp

[bieler]

Hrant

No problem if you want to borrow what I have. Let me know if you will be coming by on a Tuesday night and I will bring them along.

Gerald

[bieler]

Hrant

The reprinted quote from Stone

"The intention seems to have been to make the type suitable for photogravure reproduction. This involved a thickening of thin strokes and a blunting of the serifs and all terminals. The designer further seems to have aimed at producing a reasonably light face, fairly condensed, and at the same time one which avoided the rigidity of a modern face and preserved some of the virtues of the classic renaissance types."

Any typos are my own!!!

The figures are as you say.

There is a foundry in Switzerland, which bought up the Berliner stuff, so they do have the mats.

Gerald

[hrant]

Gerald, continued thanks.
I'll probably come in this Tuesday.

hhp

[hrant]

So thanks to Gerald I got a good specimen of Monotype Emerson.
Here's the charset at 10 point:

http://www.themicrofoundry.com/other/Emerson.gif

Nothing as exhilarating as the "a", but the "AE" has a feature I think is as nice as it is rare: the middle stem slightly tilted leftward. And the "U", although not very uncommon, is rare enough to single out for praise. Negatives: a descending "J" but a non-descending -if decent- "Q"; although in the Italic the "Q" is exactly the sort I like. Another thing about the Italic is that Monotype's typical uniwidth (generally called "duplexed") approach has NOT been applied - which however makes me wonder why it still looks a bit brutish. The smallcaps are too small to me (although the main caps are too big).

The numerals (as I mentioned above, but it's worth mentioning again) are hybrid (and I just noticed, monowidth too) which is pleasantly surprising to see as far back as the 1930s. I wonder if Blumenthal was in fact the first...

hhp

[hrant]

Apparently I can't even keep track of my own stuff: I had previously found an older example of hybrid numerals, done towards the end of the 19th century by Phelps, Dalton & Company (AKA Dickinson) and even discussed the find here on Typophile. Oh well.

hhp

[jim_rimmer]

Hrant

Ever since you put out a call for information about the Spiral/Emerson type of Joseph Blumenthal I've been racking my brain to try and recall where I have an article by JB on the entire process of making both the types.

Each time I come across a pile of paper, books, etc. I think I've found it. No luck.

I recall that the account was very personal, covering the early days of his sketching the design, and mentioning that since he was newly married, he had no money to fund the project.

It seems to me that the article was in a copy of The Colophon, but I can't be certain. Can't swear that I will ever find it, but I'm on the lookout for it.

Have you looked into the early editions of this publication?

Jim

[hrant]

Sorry for the rack inducement. :-)

That article sounds tantalizing. Maybe its contents ended up in his "Typographic Years"? I'll be getting my hands on that soon. Colophon: if you're firm on that lead I can scour the collection that UCLA has.

And certainly, if one must get married, one
should spend the big money [shortly] beforehand.

hhp

[hrant]

So I got my hands on "Typographic Years". First: it's really
quite well set, in Monotype Baskerville - very sharp, sans any
letterpress fetish. Anyway. There's a chapter on Emerson, and
it's pretty interesting, but: not much on its origins, although
he does say he traced over enlargements of Jenson, Baskerville
and Bodoni, if only to familiarize himself more with classics;
and nothing on the hybrid numerals. But the book does reveal
that the punches, matrices, proofs etc. of the original version
of the design (Spiral) are at RIT's Carey... It also mentions
that Victor Hammer thought it was the best Roman in town.
Oh, and that he made virtually no money from it. But I think
it's a really nice design, worth reviving much more than
Garamond yet again (although with a new Italic).

BTW, John, I got the Bennett book you mentioned as well.
Isn't the chapter set in Emerson so utterly convincing?

hhp

[ebensorkin]

I am also getting interested in this face but more in the version called Spiral that existed before Monotype adapted it. Does anybody have a suggestion?

[akma]

No suggestions, but very handsome and distinctive -- well worth the effort of interpreting for digital type, I'd think.

[kentlew]

Eben --

I'm pretty sure that Blumenthal's papers went to the Dartmouth College Library. I don't know if the collection has been indexed.

As mentioned in Hrant's last post, the APHA article says that the original Spiral materials were given to the Cary Collection at RIT. Jerry Kelly would also be a good resource.

I can try to drum up some contacts for you. Maybe you (we?) can get over there and hunt something down during TypeCon week in nearby Buffalo. ;-)

I'll respond to your e-mail separately.

-- K.

[Bendy]

Does anyone know how to get in contact with Jerry Kelly? His Nonpareil website won't let me see the pdf and the contact e-mail is rejecting.

[kentlew]

Ben --

Jerry’s partner in Nonpareil handles the licensing. I’ll see if I can dig up a different e-mail for her. And I’ll contact you offline with the PDF as well.

[Bendy]

Super, that's kind Kent, thank you.