diff --git a/lisp/faces.el b/lisp/faces.el
index 34b88ff5950..ee603321460 100644
--- a/lisp/faces.el
+++ b/lisp/faces.el
@@ -85,7 +85,8 @@ Otherwise report on the defaults for face FACE (for new frames)."
 If the optional FRAME argument is provided, change only
 in that frame; otherwise change each frame."
   (interactive (internal-face-interactive "font"))
-  (internal-set-face-1 face 'font font 3 frame))
+  (internal-set-face-1 face 'font (x-resolve-font-name font face frame)
+		       3 frame))
 
 (defsubst set-face-foreground (face color &optional frame)
   "Change the foreground color of face FACE to COLOR (a string).
@@ -412,6 +413,19 @@ set its foreground and background to the default background and foreground."
   (setq x-font-regexp-weight (concat - weight -))
   nil)	    
 
+(defun x-resolve-font-name (pattern &optional face frame)
+  "Return a font name matching PATTERN.
+All wildcards in PATTERN become substantiated.
+Given optional arguments FACE and FRAME, try to return a font which is
+also the same size as FACE on FRAME,"
+  (let ((fonts (x-list-fonts pattern face frame)))
+    (or fonts
+	(if face
+	    (error "no fonts match `%S'." pattern)
+	  (error "no fonts matching pattern are the same size as `%s'."
+		 pattern face)))
+    (car fonts)))
+
 (defun x-frob-font-weight (font which)
   (if (or (string-match x-font-regexp font)
 	  (string-match x-font-regexp-head font)