the mehallo blog. beta.

These two oversized coffee table books – which were published in the past year or so – are an odd sort.

Both volumes of Type A Visual History of Typefaces and Graphic Styles sell themselves as design history books.

They have the current editor of Meggs (and similar cover design), but the history is really just a backdrop (with, unfortunately, poorly annotated notes) to what the books are all about: They’re actually an incredible collection of rare typography specimens dated c. 1830-1930.

Type specimen books – font catalogs – have been works of art for hundreds of years. They essentially show what typefaces various type foundries have available. And many are designed to showcase how beautiful their fonts will look when printed.

Making up these two volumes is works from the collected type specimen library of Jan Tholenaar. The first edition is 19th century, the second, early 20th century.

The results are an exceptional typographic visual reference (mine are already filled with bookmarks) to pour through and drool over.

I took some snaps. Snag your copies here: [Volume 1 and/or Volume 2].

tags: cool finds, design history, education, fonts, typography // 2 comments  . . .