This month’s Artifact of the Month is a woodblock designed by Kate Faulkner in the late 1800s (#1989.2118). The block consists of three layers of one-inch-wide wood planks laminated with nails and screws. The top layer is carved around the edges and there are outlines of a floral pattern made of brass and copper wire along with felt.

This month’s featured Artifact of the Month is a selection of embossed lace papers collected by Jonathan King, a prominent Victorian stationer, that dates from the 1860s (#6090, 6095, 6096). King was famous for building elaborately layered cards using lace paper and illustrations known as scraps. Intricate patterns, flowers, cherubs, and young women like those portrayed in these cards were popular subjects for Valentine’s Day.

This month’s Artifact of the Month is a sheet of Turkish marbled paper, ebru, made by Mustafa Esat Düzgünman in 1977 (2019.09.0010). This ebru example consists of three red tulips and four white tulips on a single green stem with leaves on a dark blue-green stone patterned background. Düzgünman signed in pencil to the right of the stem’s base. He was one of the foremost ebru makers of the 20th century along with his mentor, Necmeddin Okyay. Okyay revolutionized floral designs, çiçekli, with the new style eventually being named after him.   

This month’s artifact is a letter to Dard Hunter from a Mr. David Silve c. 1943 regarding the introduction of a newly invented font type: Times New Roman.  

In 1929, a British newspaper entitled The Times of London hired typographer Stanley Morison to create a new font for the paper, after Morison criticized The Times for being “extremely out of touch with modern trends in typography.” Morison led the project and supervised Victor Lardent, an advertising artist for The Times, who actually drew the letterforms.