Florid Type

Type samples of fanciful typefaces from the Victorian period of typography, referred to as 'a great weedy jungle'. There was a growing practice of decorating the face of a classic letter style and surrounding it with 'shrubbery and doodling'. It's always interesting when these forgotten faces suddenly crop up in magazines or other contemporary graphic design.


Scroll Alphabet, German Chromolithographer, Louis Prang & Co., Boston, 1864


A leafy Tuscan font from the German calligrapher Joseph Balthazar Silvestre's Album published in 1843


Alphabet Lapidaire Monstre by the Swiss/French type designer Jean Midolle. The bottom third contains the surnames of famous men which correspond to each letter. The font was revived on Urban Outfitter's shopping bags last year.


Initial letters by one of America’s preeminent penmen, Daniel T. Ames, New York, 1879