Specimen Book from the Boston Type Foundry
The pattern
This still is filed under Specimen as proof.
Define
A specimen (type, material, finish) is shown so the product proves itself under comparison.
Mechanism
Controlled display. Same conditions, side by side, no adjective required. The sample is the sentence.
Verdict
Buyers choose by eye or by hand and we can put the real thing in front of them.
Why it works
The specimen line does two jobs at once. It proves the face at working size and it shows the printer the kind of job the face is for, so a buyer sees his own handbill in Reapers and Threshers Sold 98 before he consciously judges the letterform. Every sample carries point size, font scheme and price on the same line, which collapses browsing and ordering into one act with no second lookup. The seal set into the centre of each heading stamps ownership on every page in a book that is otherwise full of other makers' goods. Stepping the sizes largest to smallest lets the eye read a family as a family rather than as loose specimens.
Steal this when
Use this when a catalog has to sell many near-identical variants and the product itself can be the demonstration. Show the thing performing at every size or spec, and print the price and order code on the same line as the sample so choosing and ordering are a single motion.