At the instigation of Ben Mitchell I'm starting this thread, potentially about the often strong influence of silent punchcutters on the end-result fonts. Many type designers (such as JvK) have on occasion derided this contribution, but the least we should admit is that they've played a role, and in the case of successful/appealing fonts presumably a positive one.

Here's an image of Bremer Antiqua:

And here's one of Emerson:
http://www.themicrofoundry.com/other/Emerson.gif

Both fonts were cut by Louis Hoell... almost 3 decades apart!

Related:
http://typophile.com/node/66413
http://typophile.com/node/15269

hhp