Unidentified font and foundry
I’m hoping someone can help identify this font, or at least the foundry. It’s 36pt. As you can see, the type is very worn, and the sorts in the proof are the only ones available so I don’t think I’ll be using it that much (and not for words containing E or N!).
I’m based in UK and bought the font as part of a ‘package’ from a fellow printer who also has no idea of its provenance.
Any thoughts will be much appreciated!
Thanks!
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Mysteryfont2 (1).jpeg

Mysteryfont.jpg
Could be a typeface called Skeleton.
- Michael
Have you tried using the website “Identifont”? I’ve found it helpful in identifying most of my typefaces
Have you tried using the website “Identifont”? I’ve found it helpful in identifying most of my typefaces
Thanks farrsa7 for the tip - I hadn’t used that website before. Plenty to check through there, especially in the ‘Tall fonts’ section - although I wish there was a similar website that just listed metal fonts!
Keystone Head Letter, No. 2 is a good match. This is from the 1906 Keystone specimen, page 252. Some design features vary from size to size, but I am including the 30-point specimen because there is no “N” in the 36-point showing.
Keystone Head Letter No. 2 30-36pt
It is probably not Keystone because Keystone used V shaped nicks and these nicks are obviously round. (However, I don’t know if they always used V shaped nicks or not. I’m sure someone on here will know, though).
It seems likely to be a British foundry, but the design could have crossed the Atlantic one direction or the other. Most of the references I have available are for American foundries.
I found this specimen by following up on Nickel Plate’s suggestion that it might be Skeleton. McGrew’s entry for Skeleton Antique says “see Antique Extra Condensed.” Under that entry, he notes that Skeleton was shown by Marder, Luse in 1886 or earlier, and that Keystone had a nearly identical face called Antique Extra Condensed. That face is similar to the one in question, but it and Skeleton have large slab serifs on the crossbars of “E” and “T”. However, on the page preceding Antique Extra Condensed in the Keystone specimen, I found Head Letter No. 2, which matches Geoff’s specimen in 36 points.
Thank you so much to Nickel Plate, Geoffrey and MaynardNews for the replies on this - I’ve not visited the site for a little while so have only just caught up on this.
Keystone Head Letter No 2 does appear a good match to my font (although I only have upper case). There may be a slight difference in the ‘C’, where my character has ‘arms’ of slightly unequal length where the 30pt Head Letter has them equal. I’d be interested to identify the foundry that used the ‘triple round nick’.
I will print up a complete alphabet and then I will repost a proof of this. Thanks again for sharing your knowledge.
And what a great site BriarPress is - the epitome of what the web was designed to be….
So, I’ve now proofed the entire alphabet, and it does indeed look like ‘Keystone Head Letter No.2’! (I was wrong about a perceived difference in the ‘C’).
The alpha characters are very worn (there was a good deal of swapping in alternate sorts to get the best possible result) and needed an additional sheet of packing compared to the figures, which printed nice and cleanly straight off.
Thanks again to all who helped tracking down this font.
KeystoneHeadLetter2.jpg
Thanks for posting that specimen, Geoff. The Keystone specimen only has six of the 36-point capitals and no points or figures, so this is a useful addition. Evidently your font does not have the lower case.