Bijou, Marr 1890

Nicolette Gray writes of Bijou (Marr 1890), “These [Minister, Katherine] are succeeded by a group of small light types. Stephenson Blake's Charlemagne with a slight old-world touch, Caslon's Gutenberg with oriental dots in the middle of the bowls, and nicest of all Marr's art nouveau Bijou, all tight curls and neat diagonals and a very bright, black line.

 

This motive of smooth, solid black and complexes of precise, circular curls is used with a rather heavier touch in Marr's Ringlet and Caslon's portentous Caslon. In both the art is rather in the actual shapes invented than in the allusion.”¹

 

Bijou was designed and patented by Herman Ihlenburg in 1883. The rights were assigned to MacKellar, Smiths & Jordan; MSJ also showed it as Bijou. This letterpress typeface has been digitally archived for posterity.

 

More THP revival projects: forums.typeheritage.com/status/

More cool undigitized fonts: forums.typeheritage.com/undigitized/

 

More updates of Nicolette Gray's research of 19th-century type trends in Great Britain: forums.typeheritage.com/gray-chart/

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¹Gray, N. (1938): Chapter VII, 1875-1890. In XIXth Century Ornamented Types and Title Pages, pages 63-69. Faber and Faber Limited, London.

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