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@typeoff@typo.social

Post #947158

2026-03-30 16:53 UTC

I don’t know if this is gonna float anyone else’s boat, but it made my afternoon! The @stabi_berlin just uploaded its digitization of a specimen for Ramses, a serif typeface designed by Hermann Delitsch for Julius Klinkhardt around 1912. The specimen’s title page features a stylized ornament that depicts Pharaoh Ramesses II. I instantly recognized it! H. Berthold AG acquired Klinkhardt after WWI, and Joseph Tscherkassy – a Ukrainian-Jewish former typefounder who fled to Berlin during WWI – reused it on a page from his 1924 specimen of H. Berthold AG’s Hebrew and Yiddish typefaces. I instantly recognized it from that catalog. In some quarters, it is considered the most beautiful metal type specimen ever printed. https://digital.staatsbibliothek-berlin.de/werkansicht?PPN=PPN1963801857&PHYSID=PHYS_0001&view=overview-toc&DMDID= https://berlin.museum-digital.de/singleimage?imagenr=102887#map=1.38/1621.28/1361.67/0

Replies (1)

  • @tiro_j@typo.social 2026-03-30 17:27

    @typeoff @stabi_berlin I always found the Egyptian theme of the Berthold Hebrew specimen an odd choice, and I wondered to what extent it was a result of reusing existing material.

    Open ##1191299