Another Font ID

Several years ago I bought out a hobby shop which was long disused. It had not been well-kept, and it has taken me this long to begin taking a closer look at what was in the cases.

One case was labeled "Antique Egyptian Shaded," but I looked more closely at it while cleaning up today. Oh my-- it is an old face, and the pinmark tells me it's from Johnson typefoundry in Philadelphia. I'm posting the photo so my listward friends can see it, and determine if the name on the case was correct. I don't have a Johnson specimen book to check it against.

Stay tuned. Under all that dirt, the font is in pretty good shape.

CLICK TO BIGGIFY (and hopefully see the entire font!)


And the rest of THIS story, courtesy of Letpress and Steve Saxe:

Your type is Radiant No. 1, designed by Herman Ihlenburg, patented 18 July 1876 for MacKellar Smiths & Jordan. (I'm happy to say that it's in my new book, Loy's  "Nineteenth-Century American Designers and Engravers of Type".) [ SHAMELESS PLUG: $59.95, Oak Knoll Press, with 800 high-resolution scans of typefaces pictorial borders.]   It's very similar to Condensed Ray Shaded, the Bruce foundry's competing face. . It's not an Antique or Egyptian - no slab serifs, they are bracketed.

After the death of Lawrence Johnson, the new owners, who had been his former employees, continued to call the new company ( MacKellar, Smiths & Jordan) "The Johnson Foundry" out of affection for their former employer. This type was designed well after the new owners were in place, from 1868 on.

Back to Letterpress

Actually!

Since my return from the Wayzegoose, I have been shoveling out the Den of Iniquity to make room for my new type purchases. In the process, I've been finding some interesting or odd things that I set aside to find out about later.

I took my copy of Rob Roy Kelly's Wood Type book (recently available from Liber Apertus Press) to try to identify some of my previously acquired wood type. Not that there's a lot-- but I like be able to call it by name, affectionately, as I use it.

One of the fonts I bought on eBay (before prices skyrocketed) turned out to be "French Antique" (page 255, Kelly), without its lower case or numerals. It's almost exactly the same size as pictured in Kelly. There is a very odd sort associated with the font, however. It doesn't fit with any of the characters in Kelly's showing, yet its size and style clearly associate it with the font I have.

Kelly says this font was "First listed by William Page in the Typographic Messenger during 1869." My font has no maker's mark, but it is exactly the design shown in Kelly.

But what is the odd sort below?

 

The Rest of the Story: I love my APA and Letpress lists! Less than 10 minutes after I first posted on the lists about this odd sort, I had an answer! Thanks to Greg Walters (APA) and Alan Brignull (Letpress), each of whom identified this as an "fl" ligature. Since I have no other lowercase sorts, it was difficult for me to imagine. Kelly doesn't show the ligatures with the lowercasee.

Broken Spring- a Detour

My Baltimorean No. 2 (4 x 6) (we're back to printing presses here) has a broken spring. So this is a "commercial" break in the Sespe Wilderness tale, while I post photos and ask for help in getting a new, specialty spring made so I can restore this press.

First the actual photos. The gripper bar works because the spring sits on it and has a long, straight extension resting on the press frame. The spring is broken at one of its coils, so there is now no resistance. This makes the gripper flop uselessly forward when the press is closing, and when the rollers come back down they ink right over the gripper. Not so good.

Photo #1: you can see the broken part of the spring. It used to continue around to the bottom of the bar, where its end was poked into a small hole in the bar, which you can't see from the top.

Photo #2 A view from the outside, showing the long extension which feeds through a hole in the frame casting, under the platen.

And finally, my schematic of the way it works. The broken piece of the spring is the last round (bottom most); the X shows where, underneath the gripper bar, the end of the spring fits into a hole.

If you can PLEASE suggest where to start-- I need to order this spring remanufactured. Would I contact a blacksmith? a machinist? Thanks for any input! Also-- to keep this available on Letpress, please duplicate your comments to the list, if you will be so kind.

Who can resist wildflowers and ruins?

Not many words to add. Wildflowers & ladybugs, then a tumbledown rock chimney between the creek and our camp.

These were really lovely, if no quite in full bloom. Silvery foliage with lavender bursts of flowers. Each flower cluster had a ladybug or two. I guess ladybugs like nice homes too.

These bright yellow wonders seemed to grow everywhere. The bushes are about 2 feet high and loaded with blooms.

And I could simply not resist a scenic ruin. This chimney was build not far from its source, the creek. Stones are tumbled smooth by annual floods.

Click! Biggify!

Further amenities, more flowers

Our first day in camp was a kickback kind of day. A leisurely breakfast, some good coffee mocha, and a slow pace were welcome after the ride the day before. All six of the ladies decided to hike up to the hot springs, which is only about a mile away. Why bother? In one phrase: hot tub!

Off we went, up a trail that's steep in places, but had amazing views of the creek & valley below. I took no photos of our hot tub experience, but I'm sure you'll understand that for some things, a discretely drawn curtain is really the best choice. We loved the hot tub! All too soon it was time to return to camp for lunch.

On the way back I was able to take a few more wildflower shots; I will probably edit this post when I figure out the flower names. The wildflower book is full of possiblities, but I can't see some details in my shots.

 I had to lean over the bank and focus in as close as I could to take this one:

I don't know what it's called-- but I liked its pink-to-white transformation. And yes, the bank below is really that steep.
 Don't forget to click and BIGGIFY!

Amenities

Exploring our campsite the next morning, I was quite taken with the CCC camp we were next to. They were camping there while doing trail work so we hardly saw any of them. They got back to camp in the evening and were usually asleep by the time we finished dinner. What caught my eye was their hot water heater. That's a 40 (?) gallon garbage pail over the fire, and a chimney with spark arrester on top!

Up the trail in the background are the scenic restrooms. They offer a lovely view: 360 degrees! They are shielded by the trees, but little else. In actuality, of course, they are nothing more than a seat over a pit. Hey. This is real camping, after all. We're in the back country. Scenery is everything.

Even better, though: we had running water! Not in the privies, but where it counts: the kitchen and the horse trough. There's a natural, 365 day spring. The water is delicious.

Speaking of delicious, so was our food. Thanks to Shannon's inventiveness we ate well indeed. First night she kept it simple, and we had spaghetti. With venison. Delicious with salad and some garlic bread. It was so windy that she used a Coleman stove inside the tiny bunkhouse. There are four bunks, but most of us slept outside for the night.

The first night was restless. The wind was strong, making the tents flap alarmingly. The horses don't like wind, so they were moving around the pasture a lot: hoofbeats all night. False dawn really looked like dawn, so I slept fitfully from then on, grateful for a nice warm sleeping bag. I wasn't getting out unless I had to.

By daylight we could see the lupine in camp: all blue, but some were pinker than others. On my computer screen I can tell the difference, but  I am noticing that colors once posted  to the blog are less than stunning. So click to biggify, as always, and enjoy! Hint: first pic is the pinker variety.