Next in my series of three bits of Art Nouveau lettering is Albert House, a building in Manchester’s Bloom Street that once housed offices, although for what company or organization I’m not sure. It’s a building of brick and red sandstone, relieved by ornament in terracotta. Panels of terracotta decorated with stylised foliage and other curvaceous motifs sit beneath the windows. There are more very Art Nouveau curves in the metal grille on the double doors (and in some coloured glass panels in the windows).
However, my particular interest here is the terracotta lettering just above the door. In these panels, the tendency of Art Nouveau designers to stylise letterforms and to distort their shape for ornamental effect has been taken to extremes. The changes to the shape of the letters (to fit the space above the arch), the oddities in the positioning of some of the letters (look at the placing of the O in the left-hand panel), and the use of decorative foliage wrapping in and out of the word and date, make this at once highly ornamental and hard to read.
When I first looked at this, I could make out the word FOUNDED easily, and the AD and the first two figures in the date. But AD 18-what? It seems to be 1829, but the intertwined 2 and 9 take a fair amount of work to see, or at least they did for me. It’s a bit of fun, then, this date inscription, but also rather over the top. Full marks for effort, but also high marks for effortfulness.
