Stanley Morison, in his book "THE ROMAN ITALIC & BLACK LETTER bequeathed to University of Oxford by Dr. JOHN FELL" (Oxford University Press, 1951), began this way the description of the FELL TYPES: "The Oxford Printing house holds the oldest punches and matrices surviving in England, material not only treasured but used; types cast therefrom being employed for the composition of books and other printed matter". The collection was a gift made to the University by a bishop of Oxford, John Fell, in the late seventeenth century. He bought punches and matrices in Holland and Germany in 1670 and 1672 and entrusted his personal punchcutter, Peter de Walpergen, with the cut of the larger bodies.



The types differ in style one from another. For the typefaces I propose I used as source three books:
The first and second are printed with the originals types and I took from them the most of the samples. The third is a fac-simile edited by Harry Carter from the original of 1900 and I took from it only a few samples for the "De Walpergen Pica". I digitised many images of each letter then I carefully choose the best among the particularly "ink poor" to put in evidence the original cut without altering it. Said Harry Carter, in his "The Fell Types - What has been done in and about them" (Oxford University Press, New York, 1968) : " Technical imperfection is undoubtedly part of the character of 'Fell' in print. The pieces of type differ in height to an extent that horrifies a type-founder and tries the patience of a machine manager; their faces are not horizontal, many are not struck at the correct angle with the vertical. By employing modern techniques it would be possible to put these things right, but so far nobody dares propose it; too much of the evident difference between Fell and other types would be lost." I only recreated some character not existing in the original set. The only modernity I introduced resides in kerning. I extensively used an autokerning tool I developed: iKern



THE ENGLISH ROMAN AND ITALIC
Stanley Morison, in the 1951 book, said: "Tradition has it that the smaller sizes derive more or less from the same source; consequently these too have been regarded as of Dutch cutting. But to the trained eye the english roman with small capitals is in a finer, an earlier, and a French Tradition. It has the capital M with spreading, instead of vertical, supports, while the fount as a whole reaches so high a level in design and in cutting that it has only to be placed side by side with the larger bodies to reveal their comparative amateurishness".

ENGLISH

Roman & Small Caps cut by Christoffel van Dijck (?). Italic cut by Robert Granjon (?). Acquisition in 1672. To be printed at 11,5 points to match the original size.
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THE DE WALPERGEN TYPEFACES
Stanley Morison, in his 1967 masterpiece, said about the De Walpergen typefaces: "The design of these large Fell Types is difficult to characterize and impossible wholly to approve. It has some affinity with the Dutch work of the second half of the seventeenth century, especially with the bigger size of type shown in the Widow Elsevier's specimen-sheet of types attributed to Christoffel van Dyck; but De Walpergen went much further in the contrasting weight of thick and thin strokes and his design has crudities about it of which Van Dyck would not have been capable".

THREE LINE PICA

Cut by Peter de Walpergen. Acquisition in 1686. To be printed at 41 points to match the original size.
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FRENCH CANON

Cut by Peter de Walpergen. Acquisition in 1686. To be printed at 33 points to match the original size.
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DOUBLE PICA

Cut by Peter de Walpergen. Acquisition in 1684. To be printed at 17 points to match the original size.
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GREAT PRIMER

Cut by Peter de Walpergen. Acquisition in 1684 (Roman & Small Caps) and 1687 (Italic). To be printed at 14 points to match the original size.
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DE WALPERGEN PICA

Cut by Peter de Walpergen. Acquisition in 1692. To be printed at 10,5 points to match the original size.
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THE FELL FLOWERS
Continues Harry Carter: "Fell bought fifty-three matrices for 'flower work' from Holland in 1672, and his bequest to the University contains the finest collection of early printer's flowers now in existence, many of them unique. These ornaments have been prominent in printing in Fell Types in recent years and are firmly associated with them in the minds of modern bibliophiles. In this field Robert Granjon is the acknowledged master. He was the first to make type for arabesque ornament. In Fell's collection there are several examples of the stylised leaves and simple arabesques that he made early in his career to put between lines on title pages. Later he turned to making units designed for repetition to build up vignettes, headbands, and borders; and Fell's gift includes some of his design. Either the originals or early copies of them".

FELL FLOWERS

Cut by Robert Granjon and others. To be printed at 25 (file 1) or 17,5 (file 2) points to match the original size.
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Photo taken from Harry Carter "The Fell Types - What has been done in and about them" (Oxford University Press, New York, 1968)

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Copyright [Igino Marini] 2004