Johann Christian Bauer (1802–1867) was a German

type designer Type design is the art and process of designing typefaces. This involves drawing each letterform using a consistent style. The basic concepts and design variables are described below. A typeface differs from other modes of graphic production su ...

punchcutter Punchcutting is a craft used in traditional typography to cut letter punches in steel as the first stage of making metal type. Steel punches in the shape of the letter would be used to stamp matrices into copper, which were locked into a mould sh ...

, and founder of the

Bauer Type Foundry Bauer is a German surname meaning "peasant" or "farmer". For notable people sharing the surname Bauer, see Bauer (surname). Bauer may also refer to: Education and literature * Bauer's Lexicon, a dictionary of Biblical Greek * Bauer Colleg ...

. Bauer was born in

Hanau Hanau () is a city in the Main-Kinzig-Kreis, in Hesse, Germany. It is 25 km east of Frankfurt, Frankfurt am Main and part of the Frankfurt Rhine-Main, Frankfurt Rhine-Main Metropolitan Region. Its railway Hanau Hauptbahnhof, station is a ma ...

and began working as a punch-cutter in 1827. He ran a type foundry in

Frankfurt am Main, Germany Frankfurt am Main () is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 773,068 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located in the foreland of the Taunus on its namesake Main, it forms a continuou ...

for three years with Christian Nies, before founding the ''Bauersche Gießerei'' in 1837. From 1837 to 1847 he worked for the firm of ''P.A. Wilson'' in

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

, where he could study punch-cutting and type founding, as Great Britain was at that time in the forefront of the industry. While still in Edinburgh, he founded the firm of ''Bauer, Furgusson et Huie'', though upon his return to Germany in 1847 the foundry was renamed ''Englische Schriftschneiderei und Gravieranstalt (English Typecutting and Engraving Works)''. A prolific craftsman, Bauer cut more than 10,000 punches with his own hands, though few of his designs are in use today as they are typical of the excesses of pre-Arts and Crafts Movement nineteenth century design. By the end of his life, the Bauer foundry was a worldwide concern.

Fonts Designed by Johann Christian Bauer

All faces cast by the

. *

Fette Fraktur Fette Fraktur is a blackletter typeface of the sub-classification Fraktur designed by the German punchcutter Johann Christian Bauer (1802–1867) in 1850. The C.E. Weber Foundry published a version in 1875, and the D Stempel AG foundry ...

(1850) *Roman Extra Bold (1850) *Verdi (1851, revived 1957)

References

*Jaspert, W. Pincus, W. Turner Berry and A.F. Johnson. ''The Encyclopedia of Type Faces.'' Blandford Press Lts.: 1953, 1983. . *Friedl, Ott, and Stein, ''Typography: an Encyclopedic Survey of Type Design and Techniques Throughout History.'' Black Dog & Levinthal Publishers: 1998. . *Macmillsn, Niel, ''An A-Z of Type Designers,''

Yale University Press Yale University Press is the university press of Yale University. It was founded in 1908 by George Parmly Day and Clarence Day, grandsons of Benjamin Day, and became a department of Yale University in 1961, but it remains financially and ope ...

, 2006. 1802 births 1867 deaths German graphic designers German typographers and type designers {{typ-stub