Antiqua in the 19th Century in Germany (Book/Newspaper)

[S.W.Schilke]

Dear *

I wonder which Antiqua font was commonly used in Germany during the latter half of the 19th century for printing books (or news papers).

Thank you very much

 

sws

[Ralf Herrmann]

What are you trying to achieve exactly? Do you want to recreate something in that style or are you just looking for information to be used in texts for example?

Strictly speaking, the answer would be “none”, since it just wasn’t common to print book and newspapers in Roman type in Germany in the 19th century. And the typefaces the foundries did offer would often just use very generic names or numbers (like “Antiqua No. 2”) and they are usually not available as digital fonts today. 

[S.W.Schilke]

First of all I want to know 

Secondly earlier on Goethe had some books printed in an Antiqua (Didot --> https://goo.gl/78nyhT) so I wonder if like past 1850 no books (or news papers) have been printed using such a font. If so which.

There are some around which could have been used (by the time they have been created). Even if I wanted to create something which would use the same font from this period of time I assume I could find something in digital form (or have to use a lead letter press)

 

Any information is and will be highly appreciated. Kind regards, thank you and have a wonderful weekend

[Ralf Herrmann]

Yeah, those few German classicism books in roman type were often in Prillwitz Antiqua. But that was around 1800, not the “latter half of the 19th century”. 

[S.W.Schilke]

was there nothing, really nothing printed like past 1840+ in an Antiqua ?!?

[Riccardo Sartori]

You can use Google Books’ advanced search to find examples. Here’s one from 1851.

[Ralf Herrmann]

On 10/28/2016 at 4:01 PM, S.W.Schilke said:

was there nothing, really nothing printed like past 1840+ in an Antiqua ?!?

Here is a related topic, which shows a German book of that time. Maybe that helps. 

https://typography.guru/forums/topic/697-1870-german-typeface/

[S.W.Schilke]

Thank you Riccardo Sartori and Ralf Hermann, Is there a list of Antiqua fonts which where available in the mid 19Th centruy? I compiled a small one by myself but I fear missing out on something.

[Ralf Herrmann]

“Available as fonts today” or just “made in the 19th century”?

“Made by a German foundry” or “made anywhere and possibly also used in Germany”?

 

(I really need time to work on the Letter Library project again. Such requests could be answered so easily there.)

[S.W.Schilke]

Made / Designed in the 19th century (and preferable available as digital font today) and used in Germany in that time (e.g. Walbusch, Didot (used by Goethe, earlier), ...).

From the time I came across these (which could have been used in the 19th century), e.g.:

Schrift Jahr

Baskerville 1754

Bembo 1496

Bodoni 1790 

Caslon 1725 

Claredon 1845 

Copperplate 1901 

Didot 1799 

Egyptienne (z.B. Antique)19. JH. 

Garamond 1530 

Walbaum 1800 

[Dan Reynolds]

On 11/18/2016 at 5:15 PM, S.W.Schilke said:

Made / Designed in the 19th century (and preferable available as digital font today)

Almost all of the typefaces made in Germany during the 19th century are not available in digital versions today. I am sorry to disappoint you.

 

Quote

 

and used in Germany in that time

(e.g. Walbusch, Didot (used by Goethe, earlier), ...).

 

By “Walbush,” I assume you mean Walbaum! Walbaum was used in the early 19th century, but quickly fell out of use after the 1840s, when Walbaum and his son were no longer alive, and the other typefoundries selling their typefaces developed newer products that the market was more interested in. After the 1840s, it was only around 1920 that Walbaum became a popular typeface again.

Didot’s types were used in German in the very early 19th century. Unger in Berlin was selling them. But I don’t think that other foundries picked them up exactly after Unger’s death. As Ralf mentioned, Prillwitz (and Walbaum) were used by a few publishers in the early 19th century. Prillwitz especially is a “German” Didot typeface. But both Prillwitz and Walbaum are early 19th century typefaces, not typefaces used throughout the century.

 

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From the time I came across these (which could have been used in the 19th century), e.g.:

Schrift Jahr

Baskerville 1754

 

This is really silly! Baskerville’s types were primarily used during his lifetime by Baskerville himself. After his death, they achieved some notoriety in late eighteenth-century France. But Baskerville’s types were not being used in Germany in the 19th century; they were probably not being used anywhere else, either. In the 20th century, several foundries – in the US, the UK, Germany, and elsewhere – made revivals of Baskerville’s types. Just because a typeface was used in print in the eighteenth and twentieth centuries does not mean it was used in the 19th as well.

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Bembo 1496

Bembo is a typeface that was produced at Monotype in the UK in the 1920s, based on pages from a late-fifteenth century book printed by Aldus Manutius in Venice. There was no “Bembo” typeface being used in the 19th century, either in Germany or anywhere else.

 

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Bodoni 1790 

In his lifetime, Giambattista Bodoni cut hundreds of typefaces. Surely some printers in Germany must have bought some and used them occasionally. But this would have been very rare. Didot’s types, as well as those of Prillwitz and Walbaum surely got much more use in Germany in the 19th century. Typefaces that have the word “Bodoni” in their name are 20th century revivals, not products used in the 19th century, or in fact typefaces made or designed by Giambattista Bodoni himself.

 

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Caslon 1725 

Beginning in 1844, William Caslon’s 18th century types experienced a revival in the UK. It is theoretically possible that some German printers had purchased fonts of this old-fashioned Caslon type in the mid-19th century. But “Caslon” as a brand-name typeface would not be common in Germany until the 20th century.

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Claredon 1845 

What I have written about Caslon above is basically also true for Clarendon.

 

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Copperplate 1901 

Well, a typeface from 1901 can’t be from the 19th century, now can it? Seriously, this is an American typeface. Surely some 20th century German printers might have imported it, but its use would have been rare, and it would not qualify as a German typeface by your definition.

 

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Didot 1799 

As I mentioned above, Unger in Berlin was selling typefaces from Didot in the 1790s. This would have continued into the early years of the 19th century, but not for a very long time. Also, the Didots were French, so even when their types were used in Germany, that doesn’t really make them German typeface.

 

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Egyptienne (z.B. Antique)19. JH. 

This is a category or typefaces, not a specific typeface. Of course there were typefaces of this variety in use in Germany in the 19th century. But, as Ralf mentioned above, they did not have unique names. They had rather generic descriptive terms, followed by a number. Sometimes many typefoundries sold the same typeface under different names, too. 

 

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Garamond 1530 

“Garamond 1530” is a digital typeface that was designed by Ross Mills in Canada in the 1990s, so it can’t be a German typeface from the 19th century, now can it?! Claude Garamond’s 16th century typefaces were still being used in 18th century France, but I don’t think they were being used in 19th century Germany. However, in the 20th century, German typefoundries started reviving Garamond’s type, just like typefoundries in France, the UK, the US, Italy …

 

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Walbaum 1800 

Well, Walbaum’s typefaces are legitimately German products of the 19th century! See my comment at the very top of this comment.

[oobimichael]

And just as a side historical note: throughout the 19th century, a "unified nation" of Germanic peoples was in the process of birth. The German Confederation did not come into existence until 1815 and the German Empire in 1871. If the Antiqua types were anything like the sans serif types in their development, then various cultural centers throughout the 39 different regions/states had their own flavors & knockoffs of type design, a substantial number of them simply numbered, not named as they are today... and a "family" of fonts was rare for that time period throughout all of Europe... Akzidenz-Grotesk, as an example, was a hobbling together of several knockoff and original designs (perhaps this is what makes AG so unique in the type world). Again, I can only assume that Antiqua or Egyptienne types had very similar beginnings... Overall, whether relating to history or typography, there rarely is a "simple" truth... but indeed, a great number of wandering, colorful, and complex paths. For me, as a philosopher, typography provides a wonderful insight into history and humanity. Type is not simply a "tool" to be classified; it is the spirit of of the times encapsulated into letterforms...