60 Line Wood Type

That is GREAT! I could have used that a few weeks ago printing political posters. (as it happened, I didn’t have the right type and had to resort to Screen Printing. Yikes!)

Show-off!
(Lucky you!)

@emthree…. sorry!

I thought that I had the largest font I could possibly find when I got a Gothic Bold 40 line. Never in my wildest imagination would I have thought I would find a complete 60 line. I am in Houston, and do not have a lot of interaction with other letterpress enthusiasts. Three Vandercooks, a host of other presses, all kinds of wood type and nobody to share it all with :(

MANY years ago, I finally heard about a poster/billboard printer in north-central Iowa that was downsizing because they were moving to smaller quarters. I was told that they were selling off most of their wood type. I headed up there right away but a few others had beaten me too it and already raided the place.

Irregardless, there was still some wood type for sale. The seller was fed-up with dickering with purchasers, so by the time I got there he had one rule - any font of wood type would cost me $60. I searched around and found nothing to get really excited about until I wandered deeper into the plant. I finally found a room with a “wall of type” stacked in a series of cubby holes like books on a shelf. 72-line Clarendon and 60-line Clarendon!!!!!!!!!! It took six full size apple boxes to pack the two fonts. I had them packed and stacked and he then asked me what I had there. I told him TWO fonts!!!!!!! I then asked if I could have the rack that held them since it would be of little use to them anymore. DONE!!!!!! I did get a few other things there. But I will always remember my heart stopping when I found what everyone else had missed simply because they did not look EVERYWHERE!

By the way, I can usually only get three characters of the foot-high font at a time on a big proof press.

Rick

Rick, you need to take that type, and a 5 lb ink can down to Mt Pleasant. Might get a few more characters on that Miehle.

Congrats on a sweet font. Like you, I have a large 40 line font, fills four cases I think, a 60 would be pretty amazing.

@foolproof546 wow… Would love and trade much to have a Clarendon of that size. My largest is a 24 line condensed. Still looking for the elusive chromatic ornamental…….

Rick,
Were your large fonts marked? My complete cap font of 60-Line French Clarendon has Page’s mark on the shoulder. I had to remove several layers of ink to find it. My largest font containing Caps, lower-case, figures & punctuation is 45-Line French Clarendon which still resides in a few large boxes, since I ran-out of case-room.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/39182740@N04/3946548435/in/set-72157622415...
Dave Greer

I’ve got a Clarendon 60Line complete with Upper, Lower and punctuation. Eats up a lot of space alright. And you can only print so much at a time on a Challenge MP15 flatbed.

It’s nice to have when the project calls for it though.

http://instagram.com/p/qNUJFcg6Ye/

Hi guys,

Neither my 72 nor 60-line Clarendon fonts have a maker’s mark stamped on them.

Number 52, you 60-line font would more correctly be named Clarendon XX Condensed.

Rick

I have been told, at the Hamilton Wood Type Museum, that the makers mark was rather hit or miss but if there was on it would be on the side of the cap “A”