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Unknown Geometric Sans Serif printed in 1931
Posted by ltoikka in
4 Oct 2010 — 4:35am
4 Oct 2010 — 4:35am
Hello! Can anyone help me with recognizing this typeface?
It's a geometric sans serif, looks lot like a mixture of Erbar, Kabel, Nobel and Futura. I included the scan of the page as an attachment.
The book where I found it is printed in 1931 by Lumax printing press in Utrecht, Netherlands.
The most noticeable feature which makes a difference to other similar geometric sans serifs is the lowercase w which has a strange crossing. Lowercase a looks a lot like Erbar but it's a bit more condensed. Other letters are really round and geometric.
I have a guess that the typeface might be german but i'm not sure.
Any knowledge about the foundry or other sources to look at would be much appreciated.
| Attachment | Size |
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| 38.jpg | 498.01 KB |
| afgewend.jpg | 58.18 KB |
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4 Oct 2010 — 9:42am
It's quite similar to period cuts of Erbar Grotesk, but the w isn't right...
4 Oct 2010 — 10:33am
Not a variation on Kabel?
4 Oct 2010 — 10:47am
Hi,
quite close to Neuzeit Grotesk by Wilhelm Pischner, 1928. The w is different.
http://www.linotype.com/de/308/dinneuzeitgrotesk-schriftfamilie.html?sub...
4 Oct 2010 — 2:29pm
Hmm... Neuzeit Grotesk is maybe so far the closest guess. There are still more details that don't quite match, like the curved lowercase l in the linotype version. On the other hand, if you look at other interpretations on the same subject, like Bitstream's Geometric 706, you can find a straight l. Maybe there was originally a bunch of alternative characters.
Has someone seen the original specimen of Neuzeit Grotesk? Or the drawings of Wilhelm Pischner?
4 Oct 2010 — 4:07pm
Looks like it's probably an early version of Neuzeit Grotesk. Here's a specimen I found from the DVD-ROM (German volume) that Spatium Magazine issued a year or two ago:
4 Oct 2010 — 4:36pm
At that time Foundries (and in that respect not a lot has changed) copied popular styles to keep a hold on their home market — your sample suggest Dutch ones.
Your best shot for a proper identification is to look at specimens of Amsterdamsche Lettergieterij (my first bet) or Enschedé.
4 Oct 2010 — 5:41pm
Thanks so much for your help, everyone!
I'm pretty sure Mark got it right, even though the picture is quite small.
If I look at the other characters all the details seem to match. Look at uppercase J which really stands out. Also the figures seem similar. My print is just a bit darker.
If you have some ideas where I could find specimens of Neuzeit Grotesk, especially that version, would be awesome. Was there more material in the Spatium DVD, Mark?
4 Oct 2010 — 8:46pm
That was all I found on the DVD. It's a compilation of someone's collection, from what I gather (I don't understand much German), and some of it's a bit sketchy. The card in that scan says it's from Stempel, 1930. There are other specimens of Neuzeit Grotesk, but not with that "w". Here's a larger image:
My guess would be that the "w" was changed early on to the form that you see in current versions.