What’s this called?
Attached a pic of a fount of wood type found lurking under some anonymous stuff at my late Father’s museum. It is hand cut. I found a similar face in Rob Roy Kelly’s book but it is not the same. It is in England but looks a little Stateside. Mr Kelly suggests that a lot of wood type was cut in the US and sold under licence in the Uk and Europe. I am not sure this is so. Delittles and Stephenson, Blake cut their own type. Not to mention Day and Collins, Bonnewell, Harrild, Caslon etc. etc. I do know that Delittle were cutting all the Stephenson, Blake wood type until their demise. All the templates and routing machines are at the Type Museum gathering rust……
Woodtype.jpg
Yes, page 285 in Rob Roy Kelly’s book is very similar. He lists three different names for this style: Peerless Condensed, Old Style Antique, and No. 131 (from Page). Page’s 1888 catalog has a few other faces that are also pretty close, but unfortunately they are all designated with numbers and not actual names.
The general “style” with the triangular serifs is referred to as Latin or Antique Tuscan. This style was extremely popular in the late 19th century and probably produced in numerous variations on both sides of the Atlantic in both metal and wood type. I have very few European wood type catalogs, but can tell you that it doesn’t show up in the 1912 De Little catalog nor the 1936 Stephenson Blake Wood Types catalog. It was probably already out of fashion by 1912.
Thanks, that helps. It seems to have fallen from fashion from my earliest wood type books both about 1890