Looking for vintage engraver’s lettering manuals

James Puckett · March 2021

I’m looking for engraver’s lettering manuals from the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Does anybody have a list of titles?

Oliver Weiss (Walden Font Co.) · March 2021

I bought this set and have been very happy with it: https://www.retrosupply.co/products/lettering-library-mega-bundle

James Puckett · March 2021

Thanks, Oliver.

Russell McGorman · March 2021

This is mainly calligraphic roundhand penmanship and lettering the era but there are some interesting alphabets.
The Zanarian manual of Alphabets and Engrossing.

Stephen Coles · March 2021

When you say “engraver's”, do you mean specifically for engraving, or books that are engraved?

James Puckett · March 2021

Manuals/Exemplars for engravers to use as reference, like Atkinson Sign Painting et al but for engravers.. I’m specifically looking for examples of the lettering styles in the image below, especially the big “DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION” headline. I looked through a couple dozen old engraver’s books yesterday but it was generally decorative scripts and nothing like this.

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5019405/uploads/editor/0n/d0j5cmf8dqr4.jpg

Stephen Coles · March 2021

Ahh. that's a great question! There are many, many instructional manuals for penmanship, sign painting, and basic lettering styles, but I don’t think I’ve seen any that teaches this kind of stuff even though it was very common for certificates, billheads, maps, titles, etc.

Stephen Coles · March 2021

There are some examples in the Zanerian manual, Russel mentioned, including some models for the “bones” — before decoration. Here’s one in the 1900 edition.

Stephen Coles · March 2021

And another.

Oliver Weiss (Walden Font Co.) · March 2021

That specific style with the blocky letters that sometimes touch was called "Sickel's" or "Sickles".

Looking for vintage engraver’s lettering manuals

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