Instructions on Modern Show Writing (1913) — Hardcover Reprint

? PRINTED ON DEMAND — Please allow 3–4 weeks for delivery

This book is printed one copy at a time when you order it. There is no warehouse shelf of these — your copy goes on the press after you check out. Hardcover binding takes longer than paperback. Please allow 3–4 weeks from order to delivery.

About this book

In 1913, every department store, drugstore, and dry-goods shop with pride in its windows kept a show card writer on staff — and J. G. Bissell's Instructions on Modern Show Writing was the manual on his bench. This antique show card writing book teaches the working craft of the early-twentieth-century card writer: single-stroke brush alphabets, shaded and fancy letterforms, price ticket lettering, and the layout instincts that let a counter card or window sign sell goods at a glance.

Bissell wrote for the store card department, not the fine-arts studio. His lessons walk through the lettering brush itself — how to hold it, load it, and pull a clean stroke — then build the dependable Roman and Gothic alphabets every card writer needed, plus the ornamental and shaded styles that gave sale cards their punch. Spacing, balance, and emphasis get the same practical treatment: this is instruction meant to turn out finished cards, fast.

For today's sign painters, hand letterers, and collectors of vintage advertising, this 1913 manual is a direct line to the golden age of hand-painted retail lettering, when the show card ruled merchandising. Copy the alphabets for period reproduction work, study the layouts when restoring a vintage storefront, or keep it at the bench as a sign painter reference for authentic early-1900s card style.

Whether you letter brush scripts for a living or simply collect antique sign painting books, Bissell's instructions earn a place beside the Speedball texts and Gordon manuals on your shelf. It is trade knowledge from the men who lettered America — and it still works.

Details: 6×9" hardcover (case laminate), black and white interior, cream paper.

?? Please read before ordering — about print quality

This is a print-on-demand reprint of a scanned historical document. The pages were scanned from an original 1913 printing, and the print quality of your book reflects the condition of that original scan.

What that means in plain terms: you may see faded text, uneven inking, age spots, show-through from the back of pages, and other imperfections that were in the 1913 original or introduced by the scanning process. These are preserved as-is — they are not printing defects, and they are not something we can fix.

We are not responsible for the condition of the original source material. If you want a pristine modern typeset book, this isn't it. If you want the actual 1913 book with all its character intact, you're in the right place.

Printed on demand by IngramSpark. One copy at a time — no inventory, no waste.