Sign painting at the turn of the twentieth century was an art form that required the skill of a trained artisan, as letters played a key role in the beautification and decoration of shop exteriors. The French master sign painters, Ducompex and Fleury, issued exquisitely chromolithographed alphabet model books to serve as inspirations for their fellow tradesmen. This calendar reproduces a selection of their alphabet plates; showing richly varied typographic styles—from curvilinear Art Nouveau and Gothic types in extreme perspectives to subtly shaded italic and roman forms.