Font identification

Didn’t find it in any of my American wood type manufacturers catalogs. I suspect it is of English or German origin and early 20th century.

Rick

We have a German (Bauer?) foundry type that looks similar.
Bernhard Bold Condensed.

Michael Vickey

www.nickel-plate-press.com

bernhardbldcond.jpg

Looks similar to Lo-Type Condensed from Berthold. See:
https://www.myfonts.com/fonts/berthold/lo-type-bq/med-cnd/glyphs.html

Matt

Arrgh! I kept thinking that “I should know this face” but just couldn’t place it. As soon as Matt said Lo-Type I immediately knew that I had first admired it a year or so ago when seeing it for the first time in Erik Spiekermann’s book “Hello I am Erik”. The book has been out for a few years but I acquired mine at the Hamilton Wood Type Museum’s Annual Wayzgoose a year or so ago.

An absolutely fantastic face.

Rick

To give you more information on your font. Lo-Type was originally a metal typeface and was designed by Louis Oppenheim between 1911 and 1914 for the Berthold foundry in Germany. The name was derived from the designer’s initials LO. Erik Spiekermann started to redesign this face in 1977.

Rick

As far as I can see, it’s neither LO-Schrift nor Bernhard-Antiqua Schmalfett. It resembles both faces, but hasn’t got the boldness of the above mentioned. I attach some images here, two were scanned from the 1926 version of Handbuch der Schriftarten, also known in Germany a the ‘Seemann’ (the name of the publisher) as well as a scan from the version that Erik Spiekermann redrew for Berthold in Berlin. The author was Emil Wetzig. Updates were published until 1939. This is one of the best sources on German type developments available. The Klingspor Museum in Offenbach am Main has digitalized the book, as well as the individual updates. here is a link to the PDFs: http://www.klingspor-museum.de/Handbuch-der-Schriftarten.html
And, if my memory doesn’t fail me, LoType is the first typeface that Erik Spiekermann did for Berthold under the direction of Gerhard Gunter Lange, the artistic director.

LoType Berthold.jpeg

Bernhard Antiqua schmalfett.jpeg

LO-Schrift fett.jpeg

Our Bernhard Bold Condensed is not as heavy (bold) as those scanned pages show.

In the above photo of the proof of the wood type, it looks like it is a facsimile of the Bauer Bernhard Bold Cond. face. There are even variations in the “e” and “r” between the 2 wood type sizes shown.

Michael

Something that shouldn’t be forgotten, is that every type foundry looked at each others catalogues and issued something in the same style that the competitor had. In my ‘Seemann’ and it the seven supplements (that were published until 1939), I can find at least 30 faces in the same fashion.

Thomas,

That sounds like a wonderful archive you have. 30 faces in the same fashion … so which one most resembles the original post’s wood type?

Michael

Hi all,

Very sorry for late replay.

Thank you all for the suggestions and thanks for helping me identify the font finally. We bought this beauty in Slovakia and we have extended collection with all diacritics - rare I would say. Its very hard to source something in Czech and Slovak - been lucky with this one.

Kristína

Kristina.

Glad to be of help. That’s a nice typestyle.

How many sizes of this wood type do you have?

In my collection I have several wood type fonts with the special characters for Polish, but not Czech.

Michael
www.nickel-plate-press.com