Inch Grotesque (1 results)

Pear Tree Press (illustrator). large folio. spiral bound heavy cardstock boards. Unpaginated. A Specimen Alphabet of Wood Type. Limited to 15 numbered copies. Small bump to the top corner of the boards, else a fine copy. This sixteen inch wood type alphabet is from the collection of The Pear Tree Press, Auckland. It is hand printed from the wood type on an Albion flat-bed press. One of the largest letterpress types to have been used in New Zealand, it was manufactured in the USA. Unfortunately the history of its use and by what printers is unknown. The date of manufacture could be late 1800 to early 1900s. As the font consists of only one letter, figure and an ampersand (&), it is likely to have been printed as single letters which were then assembled into advertising hoardings / billboards. Wood types today survive as a curiosity and are preserved in the collections of a few print enthusiasts. At one time most commercial printing companies could have counted on considerable income from the use of such wooden letters. Printed in color. spiral bound heavy cardstock boards.