Letterforms Study Group: Corsivo Inglese in Caratteri—Addendum 3: Unidentified Metal Script Type

Case containing two sizes (60 pt D and 48 pt D) of an unidentified script type in metal at the Tipoteca. Photograph by Paul Shaw 2025.

When the focus of the workshop pivoted from an exploration of Stocchetti 004–006 to a broader examination of roundhand scripts in type, it became essential to find a metal version for comparison to it and Rosaria 030–032, the other script wood type. Leonardo Facchin located a beautiful one in the Tipoteca’s collection labeled Graphic Script (1). However, when I looked up Graphic Script in the 4th edition of The Encyclopedia of Typefaces edited by W. Pincus Jaspert, W. Turner Berry and A. F. Johnson (London: Blandford Press, 1970), it didn’t match the typeface in the case. Most notably the Q and 8 were significantly different. Riccardo De Franceschi noted that the sorts had nicks on the back of the shank, instead of the front, a feature of French type (2). The notion that the fount is French is further supported by the presence of accented characters ç, â, ê, î, and ô (3).

The fount includes a long s, a finial t, and a separate entry stroke. None of these are especially unusual as other types such as Kunstler Schreibschrift have them. However, this unidentified type also contains a mysterious character which none of us in the workshop at the Tipoteca were able to identify. We couldn’t even agree on a description.

Unusual characters in the unidentified metal script typeface at the Tipoteca. The orange ink highlights the finial t, long s, and entry stroke (top line from left to right); and the mysterious superior sort (bottom line). Photograph by Paul Shaw 2025.

Superior letters and unidentified character (in vermilion) from the unidentified script metal typeface at the Tipoteca. Photograph by Paul Shaw.

The script type is cast on an angled body with descenders that extend beyond the body, which I refer to as vertical kerning. The kerns have supports to prevent breakage. (4) The lowercase letters have “hooks” to reduce slippage when a lock-up is tightened. Spacing material is also angle-bodied with triangular pieces for the beginning and end of lines.

Two sorts (u and f) from the 60 pt D size of the unidentified script metal type showing their “hooks.” The kern of the f descender is also visible. Photograph by Paul Shaw 2025.

Several letters of the unidentified metal script type assembled (“Joseph”). The “hooks”—see especially the upper right side of h—are visible. Photograph by Paul Shaw 2025.

Side view of sort for f showing descender kern. Photograph by Paul Shaw 2025.

Section title from the specimen book set in the unidentified metal script type. The vertical kerning is evident with the g in “Congiunzione”; and the p and z in “Spaziatura”. All three letters have descenders supported by rules below. Photograph by PaulShaw 2025.

Notes
1. The Tipoteca acquired the type from Tipografia Marone in Biella.
2. See The Practice of Typography: A Treatise on the Processes of Type-making, the Point System, The Names, Sizes, Styles and Prices of Plain Printing Types by Theodore Low De Vinne (New York: The Century Co., 1900), p. 31.
3. Those accented characters can also be found in some non-French scripts such as Stempel’s Kunstler Schreibschrift.
4. This is not the first typeface to have vertical kerning with “buttressed” supports. That was probably the Penman Script series issued by the Bruce foundry in the 1870s. See “Mechanical Devices in Type” by Carl Schraubstadler in The Inland Printer vol. VI, no. 3 (December 1888), p. 206.