Hello
Please check for "IFICATO DI"
http://www.whatfontis.com/Mephisto-scriptorium.font
Alex

Thanks but, as I said, this is similar but it don't have lowercases and it is not the original.

#1. Linotype LT/Grafiko Com http://www.linotype.com/141786/GrafikoRegular-font.html

Outstanding! Thank you very much!

(very interesting art nuveau examples)

#3. Couldn't find right combination of uc G and lc

It could well be that there isn’t a complete digitalisation of it, but only partial ones (see Mephisto).

Yes, but actually it would be more interesting, for me of course, to know what is the original font name instead of its digital copy.

So, the second was the Belwe designed by Georg Belwe in 1907, thanks to DPape.

Hi, I've found the third font in an American font catalog of 1900: http://www.flickr.com/photos/fountaineer/408623774/in/set-72157594566933....

Someone please can identify it? Don't say it's not a cool font!

Found a Dan X Solo variation called Lafayette.

The original typeface is an Art Nouveau face from Bauer & Co called "Alexandra", and in Petzendorfer's book (p.35) it is only upper case. The Solotype catalog calls it Washington Antique, with a solid and open version (p.21), also U.C. only. The one Dick found may have been graphically widened to produce the posted sample.

- Mike Yanega

Looking at the showing of Lafayette in Dan Solo's "Victorian Display Alphabets" book, it's hard to see how you can get to this sample, because the u (for example) looks so much more closed in the actual typeface. I see that this was digitized for the Victorian font collection that Solo did for Dover Books. I'd guess the online copies are unauthorized ripoffs.

Dick, if you have the font, can you simulate the posted sample?

- Mike Yanega

I searched MyFonts for the Solotype fonts, suspecting that if he wanted to include this font he would need to change the name, since 'Lafayette', with a different design, is a Font Bureau font these days. It's not exact, but look at Webster. If you add stroke to make it bolder, it matches the sample pretty well except for the 'r', which could be modified easily enough. Solo says 'Webster' came from the Keystone Foundry in 1888, but he mentions that numerous other foundries had versions. My guess is they were 'inspired' by "Alexandra" from the German Bauer foundry. The practice was apparently common for foundries to copy popular typefaces and rename them, maybe with minor design variations.

- Mike Yanega

Hi Mike -- Solopedia has three names: LaFayette, (Page 10) cross-referenced to Gable Antique by Spiece, and to Washington Antique. I don't have Washington Antique to compare. Here's Gable. To be compared to my other sample above which was LaFayette

Thank you both very much! And congratulations for your preparation!
Mike: the sample I gave is from 1936 and the catalog seems to be from this 1900 book: http://www.flickr.com/photos/fountaineer/408623158/in/set-72157594566933... so maybe lower cases are an addition, but it's hard to say: follow your ideas, I found this font (called Gable Antique Condensed), also from Bauer and condensed (lower cases r and m look different): http://www.myfonts.com/fonts/spiecegraphics/gable-antique-condensed-sg/
Later I found American Type Founders Company 1885 catalogue (http://archive.org/details/specimensofprint00amerrich) where we can see:
- Webster at pag. 263
- Washington at pag. 280 (I think it match my sample)
- Jefferson at pag. 281
- Lafayette at pag. 282

That is a great site and I agree that Washington looks like the right width. I think that is your answer, but I think it's clear that the American versions added the lower case, as an expansion of the older design. The Petzendorfer book does not give a year for the "Alexandra" design, but it would be interesting to confirm that it is older than the American versions in the ATF book. 1885 is in the Art Nouveau period, so there may not have been a big difference in years. Maybe this is too academic for your question?

That was fun.

- Mike Yanega

Yes, indeed!
And thank you again!

So, summarizing, the answers are:

1. Linotype Grafiko Regular.
2. Belwe, designed by Georg Belwe in 1907.
3. ATF Washington, inspired from Alexandra from Bauer & Co.