Leyton Public Libraries: Opportunities 1958/59
Slowly rebuilding my collection after some significant losses and it is lovely to be rediscovering some of these – for many years, in the 1950s, the Public Libraries of the relatively small Borough of Leyton in east London issued information leaflets and booklets detailing the events and services offered. This included such exhibitions, events and clubs that took place either at Lea Bridge or Leytonstone Library.
The series are beautifully set and printed at a relatively local printer’s, the Curwen Press, who were based a few miles over the borough boundary in Plaistow.
The copy features a rather odd and not exactly harmonious combination of two serifs from different eras: Ehrhardt, an old style in the Dutch Baroque tradition, and Walbaum, a German Didone. Anyway, the star on this cover is Festliche Ziffern. This set of “festive numerals” was designed by Hermann Zapf and produced by Stempel in 1950. A few years later, Zapf expanded the concept to capital letters, as Saphir (1953). Festliche Ziffern came in a range of sizes, but even the smallest one (24pt) has more detail in the ornamentation than Saphir.
