View The Johnston and Gill Tradition in English Brush Lettering
by John Nash
Category:Calligraphy
Category:Brush Lettering
Many of Edward Johnston’s admirers overlook his connection with the humble craft of signwriting. Yet, as in so many other aspects of the English renaissance of lettering and typography in the early years of this century, the influence of his teaching was crucial. Almost as important (as with Gill after him) was the absence of snobbery in his approach. Although totally absorbed in the theory and practice of the broad-edged pen, and rightly perceiving it as the basis of Western lettering, he very early stressed the necessity of carrying the sound basics of this tradition into daily life, noting the inevitable (and natural) changes in letterforms that different tools and disciplines would bring about. Writing and Illuminating, and Lettering (1906) pays careful if brief attention to typography, lettering for reproduction, inscriptions on wood, metal and (written by Gill) stone - and (on p. 340) ‘Sign-Writing and Brush-Work’, where he makes the important point: ‘A suitable brush will make letters closely resembling pen letters. But the pen automatically makes letters with a uniform precision, which it is neither desirable nor possible for the brush to imitate .. .’
Implied in this approach is a definite move away from the chisel-edge and ‘one-stroke’ brushes (with their capability of producing pen-like thicks and thins) commonly used by nineteenth century signwriters, to the pointed sable ‘pencil’ producing a swelling ‘gradated’ stroke and fine serifs. The extensive scheme of inscriptional lettering designed by Johnston in 1902 for the chancel of Christ Church, Mowll Street, North Brixton, shows the definite influence of the straight-nibbed Roman capital alphabet which appears as a model in his book (on which he was working at the time), but the brush-written letters are very far in character and feeling from pen imitations. Gill (who, as one of Johnston’s first and most talented pupils, had a hand in this project) was already moving away from the pen-made model in the version of Roman caps which he was to develop for his own use as a lettering craftsman. Freeing himself from over-strict edged pen forms where minuscule and italic alphabets were concerned took longer. However, in the teaching portfolio Manuscriptand Inscription Letters issued by Johnston as a follow-up to his book, the models for ‘ordinary sign-writing’ provided by Gill were (at least by the second impression of 1911) admirable illustrations of what Johnston meant.
Gill, of course, went on to busy himself mainly with lettercarving and type design. As far as quality signwriting was concerned, the impetus provided by Johnston was carried on through the workshops set up by Percy Smith (1882–1948), who joined Johnston’s class at Camberwell in 1900, and whose lettering enterprises throughout his life included the ‘Roman Lettering Company’ (ca. 1911), the Dorian Workshop (in partnership with George Mansell, 1918–1935) and the Dorno Workshop and Studio (1936 until his death). Johnston’s influence on him was so profound as to result in his publishing, in 1908, a teaching portfolio of his own so reminiscent in some ways of his teacher’s work that Johnston viewed it as plagiarism, and a rift was caused which was not healed for nearly thirty years. Nevertheless, as can be seen in his Civic and Memorial Lettering, published only two years before his death, Smith never wavered from Johnston’s ideals, and by means of the training provided by his workshops a distinctive signwriting tradition was built up (principally in the London area) which not only survived into the sixties, but underwent a constant process of development and improvement.
Chief mover in this development was William Sharpington (1900–1973) who, after working in the Dorian Workshop from 1920 to 1935, set up his own signwriting business, run at first from his home but, from 1954, at premises offered him at the City and Guilds of London Art School, where he had already been teaching evening classes in lettering since 1930. During the forties he also taught at the Brixton School of Building. The craftsmen who worked with him (such as Bob Duvivier, who took over his City and Guilds class after his death, and Kenneth Breese and Charles Creffield) tended to be drawn from these classes, and his students at City and Guilds – of which Michael Renton was one – were able to progress from practice to actual work by going up two flights of stairs! Another fine craftsman who worked independently of these was Raffaele Staiano.
Kenneth Breese – probably the foremost representative of this tradition, and a letterer of great discrimination who improved on Sharpington’s letterforms as Sharpington improved on Smith’s – has now retired, and much of the beautiful work produced by himself and his colleagues has disappeared – rotted, thrown away, retouched by inept imitators or replaced by plastic. This can, with a certain amount of effort, be seen as a natural process of change. What’s unnatural is that the work of these men should be dismissed or ignored, as they tend to have been in surveys of lettering published over the past twenty-five years. They are as living a part of the Johnston tradition as any illuminated manuscript.