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Hal Mooney – Flutes And Percussion album art

Photo(s) by Bart Solenthaler. Imported from Flickr on Feb 17, 2021. Artwork published in .
Hal Mooney – Flutes And Percussion album art
Source: www.flickr.com Uploaded to Flickr by Bart Solenthaler and tagged with “comstock”. License: All Rights Reserved.

Cover for an album of instrumental jazz music by composer and arranger Hal Mooney (1911–1995), released in 1960 in the Series 2000 by Time Records. The design by Murray Stein depicts a flute and a representation of the acoustic waves, comprising ellipsoidal lines that resemble a guilloché pattern, or the geometric drawings made with a Spirograph. The vibrations are also echoed in the typeface choice, albeit in a less dynamic form: Comstock is distinguished by a thin contour that runs around the letterforms.

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4 Comments on “Hal Mooney – Flutes And Percussion album art”

  1. Could there be any phototype versions of Comstock and a dry-transfer version which Chartpak adopted?

  2. Yes: as with most display typefaces produced as foundry type since the late 19th century, Comstock was adopted for phototype.

    Photo-Lettering had the regular before 1960. Their 1971 catalog additionally shows a Comstock Condensed with lowercase which is different from the metal original – in 1960, this design was shown under the name Franklin (condensed) Contour.

    Berthold Fototype showed an adaptation of the regular (made in-house?) in 1974, together with a Condensed licensed from Facsimile Fonts, with alternates for g and R. This Comstock Condensed also has a lowercase, but is different from Photo-Lettering’s – it’s a renamed copy of Filmotype Quebec.

    Fürst showed the regular – probably Berthold’s – already in 1969.

    VGC had Comstock (regular) before 1972, together with a copy of Filmotype Quebec as M-13.

    Typeshop’s 1973 catalog and Lettergraphics’ 1976 catalog show both widths. Their Condensed appears to match the one by Facsimile Fonts (i.e. Filmotype Quebec). Typeshop’s was named Comstock Elongated and is shown with an additional alternate double-story a.

    The dry transfer adaptation of Comstock (regular) is shown in Formatt’s 1974 catalog.

    This list is not exhaustive – I looked at the usual suspects only.

  3. I could be mistaken, but I think I remember seeing Comstock in one of the popular alphabet books too (maybe Lettera?)

  4. Your memory is correct: it’s reproduced in Lettera 3 from 1968, on pages 94/95. It’s credited as Astoria, sourced from Bauer.

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