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The
primary display faces, Gothic, Roman, and Antique had been
on the typographical scene for a number of years before the
introduction of mass produced wood type. Nesbitt’s 1838
specimen book shows all three primary faces in condensed and
expanded styles, which portend the multitude of interpretations
to follow.
Besides
having several handsome style variations, Antique served as
the parent letterform for many significant secondary faces.
Antique and Gothic with their derivative faces accounted for
the vast majority of all display types produced in the nineteenth
century.
Decorative
interpretations of Gothic were fewer than those of either
Antique or Roman, but many of its secondary faces received
decorative textural treatment with machine ornament and enjoyed
great popularity in the trade.
The Gothics achieved their greatest period of exploitation
after 1870 and carried over into the twentieth century as
a dominant letterform. A curious interpretation of Gothic
was shown by Debow in the forties. With round letters constructed
from a circle, it forecast the symmetry of the modern Futuras.
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