Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
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Back in the day when stamp design was an art, most stamp designers created their own lettering as part of the design. At least that was usual in the Netherlands. There were even those who specialised in lettering and had a very recognisable style. The most famous letter designer was Jan van Krimpen, who created the well known series from the 1940s with only a number on it, as well as the typography on many other stamps.
Less known is that he also designed the logo for one of the largest beer brewers in the Netherlands and the font used on the national war monument.
As you can see, once you know it, it is easy to recognise Van Krimpen letters, even when there are small differences between the designs on the various stamps. Some of his fonts have been made available for modern digital use, like the Spectrum and Romulus.
Jan-Simon
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Thanks so much for these responses. Most helpful. Clearly, if I want to explore this issue in any depth, I'll have to go micro: start with a specific issue and see what I can learn (if anything) about the origins of the typeface used by the stamp designer for the lettering.
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For general font identification
http://www.identifont.com/find?picture=&q=Go
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Identifont is a neat site which I've used. I particularly like that the user can filter results by the date your typeface was used and by the letters you have in your sample. To the extent a stamp designer stuck to specific known typefaces then this site could be helpful.
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The typeface on the United States 1922 Fourth Bureau Issue series is the same typefave used on United States banknotes (as in dollar bills). The name of that typeface is: Banknote Times.
David
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Here is another font id site. I used it today to check what font Minkus used. It came back as Bookman.
https://www.myfonts.com/WhatTheFont/
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An additional note. The website of the book design firm Kat Ran Press is worth exploring on this topic. It includes a Stamp and Research page with links to several interesting pages including one highlighting many postage stamps produced by type designers and graphic designers. There's a great deal of information available here about the designers and the typefaces they created. Although the typefaces used in the stamps they produced are not specifically identified, this is a good starting place to figuring that out. In his response above, Jan-Simon described the extensive philatelic work of Jan van Krimpen which is also nicely covered by the Kat Ran Press site.
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Are there resources that identify the specific typefaces used in the lettering of individual stamps produced up to 1940? I have assumed that companies designing and printing postage stamps in this period drew from a pool of recognized typefaces when it came to creating the lettering they used, and that they weren't making up the characteristics of the lettering as they went. Maybe that's a false assumption. Any help would be appreciated.
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re: Stamp Typefaces
Back in the day when stamp design was an art, most stamp designers created their own lettering as part of the design. At least that was usual in the Netherlands. There were even those who specialised in lettering and had a very recognisable style. The most famous letter designer was Jan van Krimpen, who created the well known series from the 1940s with only a number on it, as well as the typography on many other stamps.
Less known is that he also designed the logo for one of the largest beer brewers in the Netherlands and the font used on the national war monument.
As you can see, once you know it, it is easy to recognise Van Krimpen letters, even when there are small differences between the designs on the various stamps. Some of his fonts have been made available for modern digital use, like the Spectrum and Romulus.
Jan-Simon
4 Members
like this post.
Login to Like.
re: Stamp Typefaces
Thanks so much for these responses. Most helpful. Clearly, if I want to explore this issue in any depth, I'll have to go micro: start with a specific issue and see what I can learn (if anything) about the origins of the typeface used by the stamp designer for the lettering.
Login to Like
this post
re: Stamp Typefaces
For general font identification
http://www.identifont.com/find?picture=&q=Go
Login to Like
this post
re: Stamp Typefaces
Identifont is a neat site which I've used. I particularly like that the user can filter results by the date your typeface was used and by the letters you have in your sample. To the extent a stamp designer stuck to specific known typefaces then this site could be helpful.
Login to Like
this post
re: Stamp Typefaces
The typeface on the United States 1922 Fourth Bureau Issue series is the same typefave used on United States banknotes (as in dollar bills). The name of that typeface is: Banknote Times.
David
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this post
re: Stamp Typefaces
Here is another font id site. I used it today to check what font Minkus used. It came back as Bookman.
https://www.myfonts.com/WhatTheFont/
Login to Like
this post
re: Stamp Typefaces
An additional note. The website of the book design firm Kat Ran Press is worth exploring on this topic. It includes a Stamp and Research page with links to several interesting pages including one highlighting many postage stamps produced by type designers and graphic designers. There's a great deal of information available here about the designers and the typefaces they created. Although the typefaces used in the stamps they produced are not specifically identified, this is a good starting place to figuring that out. In his response above, Jan-Simon described the extensive philatelic work of Jan van Krimpen which is also nicely covered by the Kat Ran Press site.
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