1964 Sunbeam Imp Sportsedan ad
Contributed by Stephen Coles on Dec 13th, 2016. Artwork published in
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I can’t identify two of the styles in the main headline — perhaps they are hand lettered, not type — but the face for the car model is unmistakably Brodovitch Albro.
2 Comments on “1964 Sunbeam Imp Sportsedan ad”
That unidentified font for the HOT DOG line possibly (maybe) appears to be a version of Vanderburgh and Wells’ Tuscan Egyptian mixed with William F. Page’s French Clarendon No 2, 10 line but with two spurs in the middle of these glyphs.
Does anyone know what it is, actually?
Hi Jay, these are definitely in the right general direction. What we’re looking for is an Antique AKA Egyptian with pronounced horizontal contrast.
According to this helpful page by the RRK, Tuscans are “characterized by contrasted strokes, rounded or pointed terminals, bi- or trifurcated serifs, and often a medial (midstem) decoration” – in the face in question, serifs aren’t bifurcated. Clarendons “are characterized by higher contrast between thick and thin strokes and heavy, bracketed serifs” – here, however, transitions are abrupt, without any bracketing. It’s hence neither a Tuscan nor a Clarendon.
At Photo-Lettering, such high-contrast Egyptians were also known as Barnums and Playbills. (I’m looking mainly at Photo-Lettering, because they carried both Brodovitch Albro and Romanesque.) In their 1971 One-Liner, there are a couple of faces that come close, but no perfect match. Big Top doesn’t have a double-sided bar on G. Carnival Square is a tad too squarish and has thinner hairlines. Band Wagon has slightly bracketed serifs. None of these have any mid-stem ornamentation. The only face with double spurs is Horsecar Ornamental, which has bifurcated serifs (among other differences). We need to keep in mind that Photo-Lettering provided not only typesetting, but also lettering services. It would have been easy for one of their artists to make alterations to an existing design for a job.