Farbdruckprägepresse Phönix PF ad by Schelter & Giesecke
Ad for a color embossing press named Phönix PF by Schelter & Giesecke, in an issue of Deutscher Buch- und Steindrucker from 1907. The company from Leipzig was not limited to type founding; it also produced machinery for the printing trade.
The name is set in caps from Aldo Manutio. This typeface is a variant of Murillo, with fancier forms for several characters. Aldo Manutio could be used as a fill style with the open and shaded Virgil, resulting in a bicolor set named Tintoretto. The latter was revived by Photo-Lettering (1962) and Letraset (before 1971).
All other text is set in one of the modernized oldstyle romans that mushroomed in the 1890s and 1900s. Unlike in other cases, identifying the particular version is easy here: of course Schelter & Giesecke used their own Romanisch. This series was started around 1895, making it one of the earliest of its kind in Germany, predating Romana, among others. In many regards, it’s a more refined evolution of the American De Vinne (ca. 1892) – which in turn took clues from Römische Versalien (1885), a predecessor of Römische Antiqua (1888) – moving it into the direction of later designs like Times New Roman (1932).
Detail. I wonder if the “triple flag” glyphs were part of the Romanisch fonts, and if they were intended to have any semantic value other than “fancy separator” or “justification filler”. A Jugendstil version of the pilcrow?
3 Comments on “Farbdruckprägepresse Phönix PF ad by Schelter & Giesecke”
Letterpress printer Jens Jørgen Hansen shows a booklet with instructions for a Phönix high-speed galley press from 1902. The title on the cover appears to be lettering related to Murillo/Aldo Manutio:
See also this later ad for another Phönix press from 1924:
Wow, such a cool type combination! Murillo packs a punch, and the fragility of Romanisch contrasts nicely.
I had no idea Romanisch features such a quirky ampersand! It reminds me of a penguin or small bird.
I can see the (beakless) bird now. What I saw first was a corpulent man slipping, getting his legs in a tangle … wheeeeeee!