Steelplate Gothic, Patent Affidvait
Charles H. Beeler, Jr. [1855–1899+] practically grew up at the Johnson TF (forerunner of MacKellar, Smiths & Jordan). From age four, he "hung out" there with his father, an engraver who worked with Edwin Ruthven.¹
So it is not surprising that rights to the types discussed here were assigned to MSJ. In fact, with the exception of two patented faces assigned to the Bruce (New York) and Keystone (Philadelphia) TFs, all of his known designs were properties of MSJ or ATF Philadelphia.
By 1874, reference to type tradenames was prohibited from applications for design patents—they must be identified by matching patent specimens with commercial ones. In 1882–1890, Beeler patented four easily confused MSJ faces: three "shaded" ones featuring horizontal hatching and a fourth one with "ray shading."
For the record, they are shown here with their correct tradenames according to MSJ's 1892 catalog: ²
¹Loy, W.E. (1898–1900): Designers and Engravers of Type. In The Inland Printer, December 1899.
²c.f. Johnston, A.M.; Saxe, S.O. [Editors] (2009): William E. Loy|Nineteenth-Century American Designers and Engravers of Type, page 125. Oak Knoll Books (New Castle, DE).
These letterpress typefaces have not been digitized for posterity. Working specimens are available to revival developers: forums.typeheritage.com/topic/tinted/
More about THP revival projects: forums.typeheritage.com/status/
More cool undigitized fonts: forums.typeheritage.com/undigitized/
Steelplate Gothic, Patent Affidvait
Charles H. Beeler, Jr. [1855–1899+] practically grew up at the Johnson TF (forerunner of MacKellar, Smiths & Jordan). From age four, he "hung out" there with his father, an engraver who worked with Edwin Ruthven.¹
So it is not surprising that rights to the types discussed here were assigned to MSJ. In fact, with the exception of two patented faces assigned to the Bruce (New York) and Keystone (Philadelphia) TFs, all of his known designs were properties of MSJ or ATF Philadelphia.
By 1874, reference to type tradenames was prohibited from applications for design patents—they must be identified by matching patent specimens with commercial ones. In 1882–1890, Beeler patented four easily confused MSJ faces: three "shaded" ones featuring horizontal hatching and a fourth one with "ray shading."
For the record, they are shown here with their correct tradenames according to MSJ's 1892 catalog: ²
¹Loy, W.E. (1898–1900): Designers and Engravers of Type. In The Inland Printer, December 1899.
²c.f. Johnston, A.M.; Saxe, S.O. [Editors] (2009): William E. Loy|Nineteenth-Century American Designers and Engravers of Type, page 125. Oak Knoll Books (New Castle, DE).
These letterpress typefaces have not been digitized for posterity. Working specimens are available to revival developers: forums.typeheritage.com/topic/tinted/
More about THP revival projects: forums.typeheritage.com/status/
More cool undigitized fonts: forums.typeheritage.com/undigitized/