Need help with Zinc font ID

Not sure if this will help you, but by chance I’ve just scanned and uploaded a Typefounders of Chicago catalog:

http://www.archive.org/details/TypefoundersOfChicagoCatalogBrownCover

Regards,
David M. MacMillan
www.CircuitousRoot.com

… but looking more closely at your photos, you may in fact mean Chicago Type Foundry, just as you say. It’s a bit hard to read the pinmark in your photo. Lasko (in “Pinmarks, Nicks and Grooves”) dates the use of a pinmark that says “Chicago Type Foundry” to the period 1855-1863 when the firm was a branch of White’s Type Foundry, noting that pinmarks for their successor, Marder, Luse & Co. differed. Typefounders of Chicago was an unrelated 20th century firm.

Regards,
David M. MacMillan
www.CircuitousRoot.com

Thanks David,

The Pin Mark does say “Chicago
Type
Foundry”

Thanks for the education. I did not know there was a difference.

Scott

The company’s name was “Marder Luse & Co.” but their pin-mark said Chicago Type Foundry. The name of the face appears to be Gothic Condensed No, 7, according to my 1890 specimen book. It may be shown in later ATF specimen books by a different name. From the pin-mark, it appears to be 28 pt. (two-line English) which did not have a lower-case.
Note: It was because of the destruction of the foundry in the Great Chicago Fire, of 1871, that Marder was persuaded to standardize the mold sizes, which resulted in the modern point system. If you can find a copy of Annenberg’s (1975) book, “Type Foundries of America and their Catalogs”, it has some interesting history.
Dave Greer

Thanks
Here is another with the same PIN Mark Chicago Type Foundry. Am I to assume that this was made before 1863?, Also if you can identify the 48 Pt. font, that would be great. It appears similar to Times.

Scott

Scott, that looks like DeVinne Extended “Light”. I don’t have a showing for it, so I don’t have the absolute correct name. The DeVinne Extended I’m familiar with (and own) is heavier. But it is Devinne Extended “Something”.

On second thought, this may not be correct. I’m not sure. It does “look” like some form of DeVinne however….HELP!?!

If it has a number indicating the point size, it would have been made after 1881. 1881 was the first Marder & Luse specimen book to have the new point sizes.

[edit] Responding to the post below:
I can’t wait to see this auction….&
3 Davids = 1 Mob.

Dave & David & David,

I really appreciated your feedback. You guys and everyone else who helps out on the Briarpress do a great thing. I am going to donate 10% of proceeds from my next e-bay auction which should start posting on Sunday. I think it will bring about 4-5 thousand dollars which means $400 + to the Briarpress. There will be about 100 items in total. My wife is on me to clean out my garage. I already have Jasmunds address. If Dave & David want to send me their mailing address, I’ll send you a token of appreciation.

Thanks again,

Scott

Your second san serif showing appears to be News Gothic. I generally don’t pay much attention to san serif faces, but that Q looks very much like the News Gothic I remember.

I’ll have to see if I can come up with a name on your third showing, which looks fairly distinctive.

The newest photos are also interesting. I can see why the R has some thinking it might be a De Vinne derivative, but I think it may be more closely related to a French Elzevir derivative. I’ll have to get to my reference books tonight to see if I can track these down for you.

Rick

Your latest photos show French Old Style Extended. It is shown in my 1898 ATF catalog.

Your third showing in the original post still escapes me. Can you post a clearer picture on maybe a proof of the type? It kind of looks like Caledonian, but I need a clearer image to confirm that or keep looking.

Rick

Rick,

This is the best I can do. Thanks alot for your input.
I’ve been told you are one of the best. I won’t say who said that though.

Scott

IMG_8795.jpg

IMG_8794.jpg

Reminder, this is zinc, not lead

IMG_8796.jpg

Your last showing still absolutely intrigues me but I still am h aving a hard time really defining the actual shapes of the letters because of the dimensionality and the shadows, etc.

I have taken three good stabs at this and am drawing a blank. Just when I think I am close with a few of the characters, another one negates what I am thinking.

It would be extremely helpful to have an actual printed proof of this font to work with. It has a lot of fairly distinctive characteristics which one would assume would make it easily identifiable, but so far none of them have come together as a single font.

There is a wrong font 8 in your photo, but some of the “markers” I have been using to try to id this font are:

G, A, the long foot on the E, Q, W, the distinctive g and the very short descenders on p, q, j and y.

This could possibly be a European font, as my reference materials and sources are mainly American. I have some European sources and didn’t find it in any of them.

I look forward to someone sluething this mystery font out.

Rick