According to the Mac McGrew book 'American Metal Typefaces of the Twentieth Century", the Modern style, looking like this dates from the mid-1800's. The Font Book says the face Modern No. 20 originated in 1905 at Stephenson Blake in England.
The best guess I can make about that is some of the Numbered Gothic faces, such a Gothic No.3 (up to numbers in the hundreds). Both Monotype and Linotype proliferated a wide range of widths and weights of various Gothic (or Grotesque) faces. These were being brought into use in the late 1800's, so the timeframe fits your samples easily. To expect all of these to have made it into digital form is probably wishful thinking. But you could probably find some reasonable (and virtually indistinguishable) versions at MyFonts by searching on the terms Gothic Sans or Grotesque. From an ID standpoint you are missing some (for me) key letters, like the g, and G, but my impression is that some of the Font Bureau 'Bureau Grotesque' faces would be pretty similar.
10 Oct 2003 — 11:21am
Here's a few caps. Not a lot to go on in the first scan.
M.
10 Oct 2003 — 11:34am
the first one: maybe Modern, monotype.
David Hamuel
10 Oct 2003 — 11:47am
I think you're right, David.
These guys only had Linotype machines, though.
Should have mentioned that before, maybe.
Sorry.
M.
10 Oct 2003 — 12:23pm
How about Modern No. 20? This was widely used, in spite of the fact that this is a Bitstream font sample at MyFonts.
10 Oct 2003 — 2:05pm
Did it have the same name in 1911, Mike?
M.
10 Oct 2003 — 6:06pm
According to the Mac McGrew book 'American Metal Typefaces of the Twentieth Century", the Modern style, looking like this dates from the mid-1800's. The Font Book says the face Modern No. 20 originated in 1905 at Stephenson Blake in England.
11 Oct 2003 — 12:12pm
Thanks a million.
Any idea what the second typeface is?
Matha.
11 Oct 2003 — 12:46pm
The best guess I can make about that is some of the Numbered Gothic faces, such a Gothic No.3 (up to numbers in the hundreds). Both Monotype and Linotype proliferated a wide range of widths and weights of various Gothic (or Grotesque) faces. These were being brought into use in the late 1800's, so the timeframe fits your samples easily. To expect all of these to have made it into digital form is probably wishful thinking. But you could probably find some reasonable (and virtually indistinguishable) versions at MyFonts by searching on the terms Gothic Sans or Grotesque. From an ID standpoint you are missing some (for me) key letters, like the g, and G, but my impression is that some of the Font Bureau 'Bureau Grotesque' faces would be pretty similar.
12 Oct 2003 — 10:10am
Thanks again, Mike.
M.