Illustration: A W N Pugin. Alphabet design, 1844.
The four examples that illustrate this article are alphabets created by Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin in 1844. Being Pugin and being 1844 they are obvious in their gothic inspiration. However, the fonts are an interesting development in the career of Pugin and should be seen in tandem with his increasingly sophisticated pattern work.
Although Pugin is perhaps better known today as an architect, rather than a pattern designer, there has always been some dispute as to where his real talent lay. During his lifetime and immediately afterwards, he was admired more for his decorative qualities than for his architecture, which many saw as uninspired or at least undisciplined. However, most critics praised his mastery of line and colour and saw him as a natural decorative designer.
Illustration: A W N Pugin. Alphabet design, 1844.
Although the alphabets shown here were produced by Pugin along with a whole host of religiously inspired decoration and pattern work for his Glossary of Ecclesiastical Ornament and Costume published in 1844, much of the work could easily have been used for secular purposes. Decoration and pattern is very often, though not always, ambiguous and readily available for small tweaks and corrections in order to make it available for a different or larger market.
A case in point would be the four alphabets produced by Pugin, ostensibly for the use of the Catholic Church of which Pugin was a relatively new and therefore devout member. The alphabets could well have been used for a printed format, but more interestingly many of these fonts became an acceptable addition for embroidery or more specifically needlepoint which is often confused with tapestry by which it is also known. Although ecclesiastical embroidery became a significant growth area in Victorian Britain, particularly from the Gothic Revival onwards, domestic embroidery also increasingly used lettering to promote and embellish decorative work. The number of 'Home Sweet Homes' and various verses from the Bible or popular poetry that were placed within frames and then hung on the wall or offered as gifts, must have run into the hundreds of thousands.
Illustration: A W N Pugin. Alphabet design, 1844.
Most pattern designers in the nineteenth century, at some point, either created or adapted alphabets for use within their work, or offered them for the use of the general public in whichever format they decided to work them into. New alphabets seemed to turn up on a near weekly basis particularly within magazines which regularly offered an increasingly wide spectrum of fancy lettering to be used for embroidery. In some respects the interest in a panoply of fonts in the nineteenth century is perhaps no different than our own interest in novel and interesting diversions from the standard Arial or Times font that we have become so accustomed to with our domestic computers.
Illustration: A W N Pugin. Alphabet design, 1844.
Pugin himself used lettering liberally throughout the decorative work that he produced during his short career. He was even known to have used gothic lettering in particular on both ceramics and wallpaper. However, he was by no means alone in the usage and it was deemed, if not standard, then at least comfortably acceptable to use forms of lettering, particularly of past styles within the decorative arts. Much of the interest in the examination and the reuse of lettering from past eras, at least on the part of the designer, was in the excitement of re-examination. Much of the medieval and pre-medieval world had been cast aside and even buried by the various decorative styles, particularly that of the eighteenth century. For the designer of the nineteenth century to both rediscover and reuse the art of calligraphy, even if outside of the traditions of the discipline, gave a much larger scope to the decorative arts and allowed a much wider spectrum of creative freedom from the narrow confines of the classical. In this respect at least, Pugin was in full accord.
Further reading links:
God's Architect: Pugin and the Building of Romantic Britain
Pugin: A Gothic Passion
Pugin's Gothic Ornament: The Classic Sourcebook of Decorative Motifs with 100 Plates (Dover Pictorial Archives)
Pugin's Ecclesiastical Ornament (Dover Pictorial Archives)
Pugin's Floral Ornament CD-ROM and Book (Dover Full-Color Electronic Design)
A. W. N. Pugin: Master of Gothic Revival
The Stained Glass of A.W.N. Pugin
Pugin (Pioneers of Modern Architecture)
Victorian Embroidery: An Authoritative Guide
Victorian Needlework: Techniques and Designs
Victorian Fancy Stitchery: Techniques and Designs
Royal School of Needlework Embroidery Techniques
One Hundred Thirty Antique French Embroidery Alphabets
Letter Perfect: Over 40 Alphabets for Needlepoint and Embroidery
97 Needlepoint Alphabets
