Favorite Victorian Typefaces

The printed invitation at the top of this blog shows a few of my favorite 19th century type faces from our shop. “St. Louis Letterpress Society presents” is printed in Camelot Oldstyle, an early Goudy face. Between the pointing fingers, or “fists” as printers call them, is French Clarendon from the Johnson Type Foundry. “Really, truly, ugly” is printed in Scribner, a Central Type Foundry typeface that wanders all over the place. “Nineteenth” is Old Style Bold from Central Type Foundry; “Century” is Vanity Fair; and “Typefaces” is Gold Rush. The small type describing the talk is Drexel from the Keystone Foundry. The date is printed in Grant from Barnhart Brothers and Spindler, and the address is in Jim Crow. “Webster Groves” is Title Text Open from Johnson; “5:00 P.M.” is Thunderbird from the Phoenix Type Foundry ; and “Potluck Dinner” is Vertical Script. The remaining text is Devinne, and the border at the bottom was rescued from an old print shop in Marthasville, Missouri that went through a major flood.

Bizarre, florid, garish — these are just a few ways to describe Victorian advertising typefaces. Like furniture and home furnishings of the time, they were fussy and highly decorative. I like their curlicues and squiggles, their lack of subtlety. Every one is different. They’re like extroverts, each one shouting, “Look at me!”

Printers didn’t use type subtly in that era, either. Instead they printed line after line of eccentric typefaces, one after another, showing off as many different fonts from their print shops as possible. The effect was attention-getting, to say the least. Of course that’s just what the advertiser wanted to do to sell merchandise.

My husband and I have been fortunate enough to collect a number of these fascinating old typefaces and use them in our printing. They’re fun to work with, and I love seeing the imaginative ways their designers interpreted the alphabet!


A similar announcement with a circus clown has a variety of old Victorian type faces in it. “Ladies and Gentlemen” is printed in Circus; “Your Attention Please” is a Smithsonian recasting called Ornamented; “Is your ticket to” is French Antique Extended; “A Grand Compendium of Typographical Expression” is Grant; “Available Only to Those Bold Enough to Participate” is French Old Style; and the small type at the bottom is Drexel.


The piece on mowing machines features Arboret, another favorite Victorian typeface of mine. Designed by MacKellar, Smiths and Jordan Type Foundry to look like leaves decorating letters of the alphabet, it dates from about 1884. The old mowing machine cut was found on EBay.


Two older typefaces in our collection I appreciate are Black Ray Shaded and Black Open. Both were produced by the Bruce Type Foundry — Black Ray Shaded about 1870, and Black Open about 1882. Their formality suggests usage in wedding invitations, formal announcements, church literature, and the like.


A less ornate typeface, but still one of my favorites is St. John, designed by the Inland Type Foundry close to the end of the 19th century in 1895. It has an art nouveau flair to it, like other type faces that would follow it in the early 20th century.

Sadly, many of the older Victorian type faces were melted down in the 20th century after they were no longer fashionable. That makes those that survived that much more desirable to acquire. They represent “a grand compendium of typographical expression” indeed!

How I Design A Printed Piece

First, a disclaimer – many printers are more skilled at design than I am! Everyone has their own style, too -- often I can pick out pieces by a certain printer. Some printers love borders, others cuts. Some work with color or pattern, others with type alone. Some fill their pieces to the brim, while others print sparely. And each printer prints differently depending on the material and the occasion.

That said, it’s interesting to look at how a printed piece comes together, as least for me. Initially, there’s the idea. What do I want to print? Sounds simple, but it can be hard. I can spend a lot of time trying to find just the right quote, poem, or article.

Once I have an idea, I think about the size and shape of paper that would work best for that project. Sometimes that’s already decided if the piece is part of a cooperative booklet or calendar. Otherwise, the project determines the size and configuration. Flat or folded? Single or multiple pages? Large or small? Horizontal or vertical? At this point everything’s an option.

Next, I look for type and decorative material to express the feeling of the piece. I use our Poco press to proof cuts, border, initials, and lines of type. Everything needs to harmonize, to work together. Ideally the typefaces are from close to the same era, and of a similar weight. Likewise, cuts, border, or initials need to blend in.

I proof the type and cuts, cut up the proofs, and arrange and rearrange elements on paper the size of my piece. No, not right. Try this size of type or this cut instead. More space between this line and that. Maybe the initial needs to be higher. It’s an instinctive, eyeball-it process. I know I’ve got it right when the whole thing looks good to me in plain black.

Once the piece comes together, more decisions need to be made. I choose my paper. And if I’m using color, I decide which colors where. Sometimes that’s simple. Other times I try several different color schemes, rolling out various inks on pieces of glass, making proofs, and cutting them up.

I’m fortunate that throughout this entire process I have access to the advice of another printer -- my husband Bob. Usually one of us takes the lead, then asks the other’s opinion, though sometimes we design a piece together.

It’s hard to come up with guidelines for designing a printed piece because every piece is different. There are basics I tend to follow though. Sometimes I break my own rules, but I follow them most of the time:

1) I try to keep the piece simple, rather than over-ornamenting things.
2) I generally match time period, weight, and style of the type and ornaments – the exception being an eclectic Victorian-style piece with different type on every line.
3) I make sure it looks good in black before adding color.
4) I keep tweaking until I get the look I want.

For me, designing a printed piece is a process of self-expression. Take the exact same idea and no two printers will print it the same way. And to me that’s part of the joy of it!

An example of choosing the quote to suit the typeface: Rustica resembles the handwriting of early scribes close to the time when Marcus Aurelius was emperor.


This memorial for my mother is printed in Murray Hill, her favorite typeface, with a border of flowers and musical notes, two of her favorite things.


A New Year's card using layers of color. My husband and I proofed several different color combinations to find the one we liked best.


One color can be just right for the occasion. This Xmas card uses a variety of old typefaces and borders in the "Victorian clutter" format.



Keeping it simple works, too. Here an interesting typeface (Parsons) takes center stage.