When did high-waisted (and low-waisted) fonts/lettering first appear?

Craig Eliason · June 11

There's a period charm to typefaces with intentionally high middles of letters like /B/E/F/H/K/S. Sometimes A/P/R join in, or sometimes they instead have intentionally low middles. /M and /W and maybe /N might get in the act too.

I associate this quirk with Jugendstil (central European Art Nouveau) around the turn of the twentieth century, as in these examples:

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5019405/uploads/editor/gn/fkky06la3b5a.png

But it can be seen in Charles Rennie Macintosh's Arts & Crafts work,and American Arts & Crafts folks like Dard Hunter, and later in proportional games played by Art Deco designers. I also guess that this style was adopted into type from sign-painting and hand-lettering practices.

Any ventures as to when and where it first came about (in type and/or lettering)? (And when you think it peaked?)

Florian Hardwig · June 11

Interesting question! I don’t know about “first”, but there are a couple of American typeface designs that (partly) precede the mentioned trends and protagonists. Here’s Eccentric (1881) and Dynamo (1891):

Stephen Coles · June 14

Love the question too! I haven’t found a typeface example before Florian’s 1881, but there were plenty that arrived later that decade. Other prominent early ones below. All but one of these (Typo) are credited to John F. Cumming at Dickinson. Thanks to this exercise, I think we can now say he was one of the originating, and certainly most prolific, designers of the genre.

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5019405/uploads/editor/tr/zius25zf21zs.jpg

Jagged (1888)

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5019405/uploads/editor/tt/43lv6quul494.jpg

Outing (1888)

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5019405/uploads/editor/hj/867a2ceos9io.jpg

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5019405/uploads/editor/s6/srlb06l7hqgg.jpg

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5019405/uploads/editor/j7/8e771vr6xnji.jpg

Quaint (1888)

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5019405/uploads/editor/8t/ap8j858miiz6.jpg

Typothetæ/Skjald (1889)

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5019405/uploads/editor/qi/9le5tn9eep9a.jpg

Elandkay (c.1892)

Typo (1892)

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5019405/uploads/editor/ab/0r3i61uxl3bs.jpg

Florentine (1894)

I would guess the peak was around the turn of the century – as you say: Arts & Crafts/Jugendstil/Nouveau – and then it faded out in the late Deco period, circa 1935.

Chris Lozos · June 14

Do you think there was an influence by Runes?

John Hudson · June 14

Indirectly, I think, Chris. One river of inspiration feeding this style flows from the Middle Ages, from manuscript titling letterforms that are inluenced by runic scripts.

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5019405/uploads/editor/3e/y8fhs0yl1nql.png

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5019405/uploads/editor/w1/8lboj2y3ub9d.png

Andreas Stötzner · June 28

John, I fail to spot any mutual aspect of the above book lettering samples with runes;* nor can I see any high-waist details like in the type samples from the end of the 19th century.

(* with the exception, perhaps, of the peculiar Þorn which looks like Ƿynn)

John Hudson · June 28

I wasn’t specifically referring to the high-waistedness feature, but to this kind of mediaeval letter as one of the sources of inspiration for some features of this lettering: the shapes of bowls and in the tendency to tall, narrow forms. I am also looking at this mostly in the UK context, where the Arts & Crafts and pre-Raphaelite movements are explicitly engaged with mediaeval sources.

Re. the indirect connection with runes, I think familiarity with runes influenced the tall narrow forms of majuscules in the Anglo-Saxon manuscripts. Both scripts are used side-by-side in some Anglo-Saxon manuscripts, so some cross-filtering of aesthetics is unsurprising. See Victoria Symons Runes and Roman Letters in Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts.

Chris Lozos · June 29

"I think familiarity with runes influenced the tall narrow forms of majuscules" I agree with John on this.

When did high-waisted (and low-waisted) fonts/lettering first appear?

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