Continuing our series on some of the recent new additions to our collections, here are a few type specimens that will join the Updike Collection, already impressively stocked with type specimen books from the sixteenth century to the twentieth:
These are five twentieth-century examples, including the Navy Hydrographic Office specimen book, which is in a plastic comb binding, complete with a small tool for opening the combs to add more pages as they became available:
Type specimen text is often enjoyable for it’s stream-of-conscious aesthetic. In many cases, like this Ludlow specimen, the text offers suggestions on how a face might be used. Headlines are indeed made for advertising a new product:
The table of contents for the Boyd Printing Company’s specimen book shows they covered all the bases: Linotype, Ludlow and hand setting:
