Type Book – the first Type Specimen Book of Cooper & Beatty, 1927

This heavily embossed cover is an example of quality typesetting in the early 1920s. The principal typeface, Goudy Handtooled, had been released by American Type Founders (ATF) in 1922. The secondary types, also from ATF, are Goudy Catalogue, 1919, and Goudy Catalogue Italic, 1922.

Title page for the 1927 Cooper & Beatty catalogue, which obviously had been in circulation before they moved to 196 Adelaide Street West. The type is unadorned and quite modern, the still-felt need for decoration being fulfilled by the ornate border and trademark. The typeface is hand set foundry Goudy Bold, 1916, from American Type Founders (ATF). A machine set Goudy Bold would not be available until 1928.

A signed message from Ed Cooper and Lew Beatty to the people of Toronto. The date is in small caps under their name. Catalogues such as this were rarely dated. The typeface is the Lanston Monotype version of Garamond, 1921, designed by Frederic. W. Goudy.

Popular in the early 20th Century. Cochin, or Cochin Old Style, was based on letterforms of 18th Century French engravers. Adapted into type by the Peignot Foundry in Paris, this version was produced in 1917 by Lanston Monotype who were also responsible for Cochin Open, used here for the title and initial.

The last typeface added to the 1927 book is Fairport Bold which is actually a copy of Futura that was produced by the Baltimore Type Foundry in 1943 named Airport. The overall quality of Airport is relatively poor but during the Second World War it was almost impossible to obtain high quality German typefaces. In the 1950s Airport found a second home as an early photo-lettering face.

Notes

The first Cooper & Beatty type specimen book was issued while they were still operating out of Noble Scott Printers at 102 Adelaide Street West, Toronto. Shortly after it was published, they moved to 196 Adelaide Street West (note the handwritten change on the title page), where they remained until 1959. The book is carefully designed and printed; with its heavily embossed cover, symmetrical and hierarchical layout, and ornate borders and flourishes, it nicely captured the predominant typographic feeling of the early 20th century, less modernist than a polished application of traditional humanist forms. Buyers of typesetting needed good specimen books to help them chose the right typefaces for a job, and the big typesetting companies spent lavishly on their books. Judging from some of the later typefaces shown in this book, it appears this was Cooper & Beatty’s principal type specimen until well after World War II. This book was still in use when W. E. ‘Jack’ Trevett and a small group of employees bought the company in 1950. – Rod McDonald

Category
Trade and Craft
Title
Type Book, Cooper & Beatty, Limited, Trade Composing Room
Date
1927
Client
Cooper & Beatty, Limited
Credits
Typography: Cooper & Beatty
Principal Typefaces
Cover: Goudy Oldstyle, various weights
Text: Garamond (Lanston Monotype), various typefaces
Description
Hardcover, 7-ring binder, 112 pp. (including later additions)
Size: 9.75 × 11.875 inches
Region
Ontario
Language
English
Images
1
Holding
Canadian Typography Archives
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Type Book – the first Type Specimen Book of Cooper & Beatty, 1927

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