Fiche de blessure de guerre, Mémorial de Verdun
Lafayette in use for the title of a battlefield injury record from World War I, spotted in the Verdun Memorial Museum. Designed by Gustave F. Schroeder for the Central Type Foundry in 1885, the condensed typeface was also cast by a number of European foundries. Lafayette here is used in all caps, some of which descend below the baseline.
The roman used for the form is unidentified. The instructional text on the left (“to tie on a button of the garment and to keep carefully”) is set in another face that was sold by numerous foundries under various names, incl. Etienne schmal (Bauer, John) and Estienne (Fonderie Typographique Française). Solotype’s digital version is also called Estienne, and goes back to “just before 1900 in France”. The closest digital option for Lafayette is Gable Antique Condensed SG, which is based on Concordia by Berthold.
