Typeface ID ?

Looks a lot like Cloister Old Style to me.

This is probably a renamed type sold by F. T. Wimble in Australia and New Zealand. If you can find a Wimble specimen somewhere it should be listed in that. You could also check with Otago University as their printing program may have the type itself and know its source. Wimble did buy some things in the USA also, so Cloister Oldstyle from ATF is not out of the question.

Bob

That would explain the Em’s and En’s stamped
F T Wimble & Co.

I posses a somewhat scarce and varied collection of Wimble’s print sundries but know little of his involvement of type, my presumption, from what information is available online is that he was merchant only (Unlike his father, Benjamin, who developed ink for print) not manufacturer of the fine products that still exist today (including type). Made from whom, I don’t know.

But, nonetheless, an incredible and influential figure and foundation to printer and publisher alike in early Australia.

It surprises me more that people of this importance/influence, in this country are learnt of by myself 45 years past my schooling.

I suspect their is many more contributors to this land I know nothing of.

With thanks AdLibPress

I wanted to reply to this earlier, but I was on the road to St. Louis and the APA Wayzgoose and didn’t have my library with me.

There has been some ambiguity as to whether Wimble & Co. actually cast type or only sold type imported from elsewhere. Several years ago I purchased a Wimble catalog, undated, but circa 1934, at another APA Wayzgoose—see the scans of Otaga (providing I can attach them). It does appear to be Cloister Old Style as was mentioned earlier. Inside the book was a copy of email correspondence from ca. 2000 between Chuck Klensch, Paul Deunsing, Grant Stott, and an unidentified David. The message seems to be from Grant Stott who stated that he visited his sister who was employed as a type finisher in Wimble’s Sydney plant in 1956. Her job was to break the tang (jet) off the type and file the groove on the bottom of the type. He also said he visited the casting room when he purchased type there. He was led to believe that most of their mats came from ATF.

So, it appears that Wimble did cast type in Australia, and perhaps in New Zealand, at least from the 1930s to 1950s.

Looking through the 238 page catalog, the type does appear to be the same as what ATF offered, but with names changed. In Feb. 2003 Check Klensch compared the 1934 ATF specimen book with this Wimble catalog and made this list:

Wimble ATF
Christchurch Cheltenham
Otago Cloister OS
Katoomba Text Typo Text
Oceanic Shaded Antique Shaded
Paramatta Shaded Engravers Shaded
Darwin Parsons
Wentworth Black Cooper Black
Jenolean Old Style Goudy OS
Austral Text Engravers Old English
Ulmarra Text Wedding Text
News Gothic Extra Condensed News Gothic Extra Condensed (same)

There are other types with down-under names shown that, with a little effort I could probably identify the ATF names, including Aukland Gothic, Australian Mercantile, Australian Script, Bendigo Text, Blaxland, Canberra OS, Eden Gothic, Elegant Script, Dunedin, etc. Also some names were not changed: De Vinne, Bradley, Law Italic. The catalog also shows a considerable amount of border, decorative material, rule, etc. No machinery or equipment is shown.
I thought this information would be helpful to some letterpress people living in that part of the world.
—Bob

WimbleOtaga.jpg

>There has been some ambiguity as to whether Wimble & Co.
>actually cast type or only sold type imported from elsewhere.

Dennis Bryans (Golden Point Press) has written a fine and deeply researched book, “A Survey of Australian Typefounders’ Specimens” which shows two photographs of the casting department at Wimble’s: one from 1901 and one from 1922. The casting machines all appear to be pivotals.

This book is available directly from Dennis at:

http://goldenpointpress.com.au/2-uncategorised/1-a-survey-of-australian-...

Regards,
David M.
www.CircuitousRoot.com

Thanks Bob and David,

This is great information and very helpful.

Regards,
Andrew