Lost Type Recovered from the Thames

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The tale of loss—and eventual recovery, a century later—of the Doves Type typeface is like something out of an Agatha Christie novel. In 1909 Thomas Cobden-Sanderson and Emery Walker, partners in Doves Press in London, had a falling out which resulted in the dissolution of the company. Mr. Cobden-Sanderson apparently had an issue with his ex-partner using the company’s flagship typeface after the break-up. In 1916, he made several covert trips to Hammersmith Bridge on the Thames to send the lead letterforms to their watery grave.

Fast-forward to 2013, when designer Robert Green was putting the finishing touches on his digitally re-created Doves Typeface. He was deeply familiar with the story of Cobden-Sanderson’s actions and decided to see if he could find any traces of the long-lost type. From reading his journals and other research on the matter, Green pinpointed the type’s probable resting place along the river. After less than a half an hour of searching he had already found several pieces. A full-scale retrieval mission was launched and, in the end, he ended up recovering over 150 pieces of the lost type!

With the missing pieces, Green was able to refine the progress he had made on his digital re-creation. He has declared the project finished, and a new version of Doves Type is now available for purchase. Many of the original forms that he salvaged were donated to the Emery Walker Trust—which already owned a small sample of the type—and Green himself is keeping some as a reminder of his great type treasure hunt. Coincidentally, the February 11th page of the 2015 Typodarium type calendar features the Doves Type typeface.

Erica Gamet has been involved in the graphics industry for over 35 years. She is a speaker, writer, trainer, and content creator focusing on Adobe InDesign, Apple Keynote, and varied production topics. She is a regular presenter at CreativePro Week, regular contributor to CreativePro Magazine, and has spoken at Canada’s ebookcraft, Adobe MAX, and Making Design in Oslo, Norway. Find Erica online at the CreativePro YouTube channel, CreativeLive.com and through her own YouTube channel. When she isn’t at her computer she’s probably daydreaming about travel or living in a Nordic noir landscape.

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  • Pearls Mom says:

    Great story! I would like to see more of these in the publication. Surely there are many entertaining tales on the road from hand to digital graphics.

    • Erica Gamet says:

      Thanks Pearls Mom…glad you liked it. So, you’d like to see more stories of “interest to type/print/letter geeks” like us? I think it’s great fun finding out about these things. Seriously, this story was a BBC-esque drama with history, intrique, and double-crossing…but for the aforementioned print nerd in me. Thanks for the feedback!

  • Guest says:

    Great story!

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