font_designer: Dan Solo

Like many of the Victorian decorative fonts, this one had caps only when Barnhart Bros. and Spindler brought it out. In 1990, we decided to draw a lowercase for it, making it more versatile....

Many foundries had versions of Concave ‹ wide, narrow, extra condensed, some with lowercase, some without. A good general utility style for Victorian typography.

Eastlake was a popular furniture style of the period when the MacKellar, Smiths & Jordan foundry brought out this font. As with many types, we find it difficult to see the connection between the...

In our early days of type hunting, we considered this to be the prize of our collection. Fonts of this late Victorian period seem to have less ruffles and flourishes than the earlier ones,...

In one of our yearly type hunts, we came across the ancestor of this font, much wider and more decorative, with fine outside shading. Condition was poor so we did the obvious, cutting out...

This is a simplified Tuscan, free from excessive ruffles and flourishes. Types of this general design began to appear in profusion in the 1830, and continued as a popular form until the end of...

A surprisingly modern looking condensed sans serif issued by Mackellar, Smiths & Jordan foundry in 1887. Its narrow width makes it useful for long copy headlines. Designed by the freelance type cutter Charles Beeler...

Victorian fonts are a delight to use, but many don¹t have a lowercase. Today, that doesn¹t cut it, so where practicable, we design a harmonizing lowercase to extend the usefulness of the font.