Victor Hammer

Victor Karl Hammer (December 9, 1882 – July 8, 1967) was an Austrian-born American painter, sculptor, printer, and typographer. Early life Hammer was born in Vienna, Austria to Karl and Maria (Fuhrmann) Hammer. He began his apprenticeship in architecture at the age of fifteen in the studio of Camillo Sitte, author of Der Staedte-Bau nach seinen kuenstlerischen Graundsaetzen. In 1898, he transferred to the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, which he left ten years later. Hammer received the Prix de Rome in 1909. Professional artist Hammer produced his first type design, Hammer Uncial, in 1921. In 1922, he moved to Florence, Italy, where he set up a printing press. In 1929, he moved his printing operation into the Villa Santuccio in Florence and named it the Stamperia del Santuccio. The first book that was printed in this operation was Milton's Samson Agonistes (1931), using what would be known as his Samson Uncial type. Punches for the type were cut by Paul Koch, son of Rudolf Koch. Hammer moved to Kolbsheim in Alsace in 1934, where he designed and built a chapel on an estate for a friend. From 1936 to 1939, Hammer lived in Vienna, where he served as professor at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste. In 1939, he fled the Nazis and immigrated with his first wife to the United States, leaving behind all his cutting and casting tools and most of his fonts. He taught at Wells College in Aurora, New York until 1948. Here, he produced American Uncial the best known of his five typefaces.