Old Display Typefaces

claudem
5.Oct.2005 8.00am
claudem's picture

Hi, I’m looking for good samples of Figgin’s Antique (1817), Caslon’s Egyptian (1817) and the first Fat Face(Thorowgood?): please, anybody has any specimen fac-simile to send?

Thanks, Claude



dan_reynolds
5.Oct.2005 8.29am
dan_reynolds's picture

Christian Schwartz did a Caslon Egyptian for the Font Bureau. Here is a specimen: http://orangeitalic.com/caslon.shtml

Maybe you could contact the Font Bureau about licensing options?

Linotype’s got a Thorowgood digitization: http://www.linotype.com/90318/thorowgood-family.html

Don’t know about Figgin’s…


Mark Simonson
5.Oct.2005 8.44am
Mark Simonson's picture

Matthew Carter did a couple of Figgins fonts in 1992 for a Microsoft Font Pack. They’re shown in his section of the first Indie Fonts book. I wonder what became of them?


ben_archer
5.Oct.2005 1.52pm
ben_archer's picture

I’ve been researching similar material - and if you want reproductions of the original printed examples rather than existing fonts, I can wholly recommend ’An Atlas of Typeforms’ by James Sutton & Alan Bartram, published 1967 by Lund Humphries (I think). Although it’s old and very large format, this should be available by library interloan, and I believe it carries examples of all three you’re looking for.
Additionally, sample settings of the Caslon and the Figgins are both shown on p.20,21 of the old Baseline ’sans serif’ issue from 1991. The uppercase of the Caslon can be found on p.31 of Justin Howes ’Johnston’s Underground Type’ 2000 by Capital Transport.