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American Wood Type: 1829-1900: Notes on the Evolution of Decorated and Large Types and Comments on Related Trades of the Period / Rob Roy Kelly
Books
REF.TS.1287
350 p. : illus. ; 32 cm.
1969
Type and type-founding, Wood types (Printing), Printing
From inside cover: "It tells the complete story of wood type, beginning with the history of wood as a printing material, the development of decorated letters and large letters, and the invention of machinery for the mass-producing wood letters. The 19th-century heyday of wood type is covered in great detail; all aspects of design, manufacture, and marketing are explained and the evolution of styles is traced. Many related trades interacted with wood type production -- lithography, letterpress, metal-plate and wood engraving, sign painting and calligraphy, poster printing and type-founding -- and these are also discussed...In this book more than 600 styles of wood type are classified and shown by period. There are more than 100 specimens of complete or partial font, reproduced just as proofed, with all the imperfections to be expected...There are also many other illustrations, some heretofore unpublished, others placed for the first time in their proper context of decorated and large letters...A precise bibliography includes a listing of all wood type specimen books found in major American libraries, and a complete index concludes the book."