Castellar by John Peters

The name of John Peters may not be instantly recognisable, but he was responsible for one particularly elegant titling face - Castellar.

Cut by the Monotype Corporation in 1957 in six large sizes (24, 30, 36, 48, 60 and 72 point), the face is a delicately-incised design, making the production of any smaller sizes impractical for general letterpress use.

Unjustly described by a sharp-witted critic as having a name reminiscent of cheap cigars, Castellar has rather more romantic origins. Interviewed in the September 1958 edition of The Jobbing Printer, John Peters said of his design, “Castellar is a hill-top village high among olive groves and pencil-thin cypress trees that cover the foothills of the Alpes Maritimes above Menton. It was not by way of a random choice that I adopted this name for this particular design. Whilst staying at Castellar in 1955 and following visits to the monument to Augustus Caesar at La Turbie, I made the drawings and notes for a titling letter which form the basis of the present design.” 

John Frederick Herbert Peters was born in 1917 and originally trained as an architect. He joined the RAF in 1938 in the run-up to the outbreak of war but was seriously wounded on a reconnaissance flight over occupied France in 1940. Despite being in considerable pain he quickly returned to active service until the end of the war. For much of his life he was unable to obtain effective pain relief and even the later amputation of his injured leg did little to assuage his suffering. 

After the war, Peters joined the Shenval Press, later becoming deputy director of the Arts Council and a eventually partner in the newly-established Vine Press. He married Margaret Shand, whose family owned the Shenval publishing house, but Peters left the business after falling out with his father-in-law. In 1950 he joined the Cambridge University Press, beginning a fruitful professional partnership with John Dreyfus, who described the young man as “An officer and a gentleman, with dark hair and a beautifully laid out moustache.” 

John Peters designed a number of typefaces for Monotype. In addition to Castellar (Series 600, 1957), there was Angelus (Series 555, 1953)—a 4¼ point type for Bible printing. Commissioned by Cambridge University Press, the Bible project was never completed and the face, although cut and given a Series Number by Monotype, was ultimately not used. Peters also designed Traveller (Series 629) in 1963, a face created for the exclusive use of the British Transport Commission, but once again, not used. Traveller was made generally available to printers a year later, in 1964.

Another of John Peters’ designs, Fleet Titling (Series 632, 1966) based upon the upper-case letters of Monotype Series 453, Erhardt, was quickly adopted by Corporation for their own stationery. A special outline version of Fleet Titling was prepared for Monotype letterheadings, but was not made generally available. The basic face was cut in 14, 16, 18, 24, 30, 36, 42, 48, 60 and 72pt.

The extreme discomfort he experienced from his war wounds stayed with John Peters throughout his life. He was unable to achieve any effective method of pain control and eventually, on the 12th of May 1989, unable to bear the suffering any longer, he ended his life with a single gunshot. Although his name is not well known, John Peters lives on through his typeface designs, especially the elegant Castellar, named after the little town on the French Riviera where he briefly found peace and contentment.