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.