The face shown is definitely Gill Extra Bold from English Monotype. Even though there are only caps and figures shown, there is definitely enough room on the body under the baseline of the caps for descenders in the lowercase, so what is shown is not a titling font. You can also see the cap “J” descending below the baseline.
Several years ago I spent a week learning how to carve letters in stone with the late John Skelton, Eric Gill’s nephew and last apprentice. Eric Gill was the designer of the Gill Sans typeface (albeit heavily assisted by the Monotype drawing office but I digress, that’s another tale). John Skelton was a wonderfully skilled sculptor and letter carver and he recalled the following incident which went something along the lines of:
“When I was apprenticed to my uncle I was sent the task of drawing out a sample alphabet prior to carving it. When I got to the letter M I erroneously drew a serif on the inside of the first ascender. A fellow apprentice pointed out this was wrong but rather than correct the drawing I drew a serif on the inside of the second ascender to match, hoping it wouldn’t be spotted by my ‘master’. Of course this wasn’t the case, I was asked to see Gill in the office. Gill asked me to correct the drawing, adding, with a glint in his eye ‘remember I have the eye of an E.Gill’.”
It was a truely humbling experience to have worked in the presence of someone with a terrifying technical craft skill like John and I don’t claim for an instance to have anything remotely like the eye of an E.Gill but on this occasion I think I’ll stick my neck out and say aye, Gill Sans Extra Bold.
Extra Bold…
No, not Gill.
Obviously a titling face and extra, extra bold.
Are there any pin marks to help.
Mike and Ironfire, John is correct.
The face shown is definitely Gill Extra Bold from English Monotype. Even though there are only caps and figures shown, there is definitely enough room on the body under the baseline of the caps for descenders in the lowercase, so what is shown is not a titling font. You can also see the cap “J” descending below the baseline.
Several years ago I spent a week learning how to carve letters in stone with the late John Skelton, Eric Gill’s nephew and last apprentice. Eric Gill was the designer of the Gill Sans typeface (albeit heavily assisted by the Monotype drawing office but I digress, that’s another tale). John Skelton was a wonderfully skilled sculptor and letter carver and he recalled the following incident which went something along the lines of:
“When I was apprenticed to my uncle I was sent the task of drawing out a sample alphabet prior to carving it. When I got to the letter M I erroneously drew a serif on the inside of the first ascender. A fellow apprentice pointed out this was wrong but rather than correct the drawing I drew a serif on the inside of the second ascender to match, hoping it wouldn’t be spotted by my ‘master’. Of course this wasn’t the case, I was asked to see Gill in the office. Gill asked me to correct the drawing, adding, with a glint in his eye ‘remember I have the eye of an E.Gill’.”
It was a truely humbling experience to have worked in the presence of someone with a terrifying technical craft skill like John and I don’t claim for an instance to have anything remotely like the eye of an E.Gill but on this occasion I think I’ll stick my neck out and say aye, Gill Sans Extra Bold.
Hah - just remembered something - John described my first attempt at carving a serif as ‘British Rail Angle Iron’…
Looks like Granby Elephant to me
John christopher .
Did you work at Ditchling press (formerly St dominics press) ????
Or work alongside lawrence peplar ?