The Mysterious Origins of the ‘House Number Font’

While shopping for his home, Dime Store Adventures went on a quest to find the origins of the fancy font used for house numbers. The font was based on “Chinoiserie”, a 17th century European design interpretation of Asian art that moved into the 20th century with the Art Deco movement.

The numbers are an example of Chinoiserie, an umbrella term for western imitation of Chinese aesthetics. Although Chinoiserie was originally a European trend that first came to prominence in the late 17th century,…during the 1920s in particular, Chinoiserie also got wrapped up in the famous Art Deco movement. 

The numbers themselves were popularized through an HW Knight catalog in 1927, however they were not the original inventors of the font. In fact, it is not very clear as to who was.

I genuinely have no idea who invented the house number style. I just know for sure that it wasn’t HW Knight in 1927.