Purchasing old type-specimens

Kasper Pyndt

Hey! 

I'm looking to start a collection of old type specimens (basically anything before 1980), and I'm wondering if you have any insights as to where to purchase some? I've been looking a bit on Amazon, but haven't been able to find much. Maybe I'm not using the right key words? Or maybe you know of specific sites/sellers or other tips that you can share?

Thanks a lot,
Kasper

Kasper Pyndt

Just realised I posted this in the wrong category. If a moderator sees this, feel free to move it to the correct category.

George Thomas

eBay for auctions, abe.com which is an online marketplace for used book sellers. Also, Oak Knoll Books at oakknoll.com.

Nick Curtis

Specifically on eBay—Business and Industrial/Printing & Graphic Arts/Printing & Graphics Essentials—has both wood and foundry type for sale or auction.

Helmut Wollmersdorfer

How old is old?

Only original printed books or scanned ones?

ZVAB has many used books related to typography:
https://www.zvab.com/buch-suchen/titel/d-stempel-ag/

Complete set of types or only a line like Hamburgis?

I have 220 of free available scanned books, catalogues and even the scanned file cards of the German registry of type faces 1910-1960 (Association of German Typefoundries = Verein der Schriftgiessereien). http://www.klingspor-museum.de/Verein-der-Schriftgiessereien-VdS.html See other links here: http://www.klingspor-museum.de/index.html

Also a collection of ~3000 free available historic fonts, where I can print specimens myself.

Some are hard to get like the complete specimens of Bodoni, Manuale Tipografico. [Parma 1818]
There are modern reprints of it, you can maybe get as used book:
Handbuch der Typographie, manuale tipografico. Hrsg. von Stephan Füssel. Köln 2011. ISBN 978-3-8365-0552-9

There are still producers of metal typefaces like https://www.rainer-gerstenberg.de/bleischriften/ with downloadable specimens. Click on "Schriftprobe".

Some of the scanned ones available on archive.org. Links maybe don't work, but you can use part of the title as search term:

American Type Founders, 1896

http://openlibrary.org/works/OL6818242W/Pacific_coast_blue_book

American Type Founders, 1897

http://openlibrary.org/works/OL15738894W/Specimens_of_type_borders_ornaments_brass_rules_and_cuts_etc

American Type Founders, 1900

http://openlibrary.org/works/OL15727204W/Desk_book_of_type_specimens_borders_ornaments_brass_rules_and_cuts

American Type Founders, 1903

http://openlibrary.org/works/OL6818264W/ Specimens_of_borders_and_ornaments_cuts_and_brass_rules_and_illustrated_catalogue_and_price_list_of_printing_material_and_printers%27_supplies

American Type Founders, 1912

http://openlibrary.org/books/OL7160961M/American_specimen_book_of_type_styles

Barnhart Brothers & Spindler, 1907

http://openlibrary.org/books/OL7160294M/Book_of_type_specimens.

Bauersche Gießerei, ca. 1915

http://openlibrary.org/books/OL24981137M/ Hauptprobe_in_gedr%C3%A4ngter_Form_der_Bauerschen_Giesserei_Frankfurt_am_Main_Filialen_in_Barcelona_und_Madrid_A._Numrich_Co._in_Leipzig

Binny & Ronaldson, 1812

http://openlibrary.org/books/OL7228222M/Specimen_of_printing_types_from_the_foundery_of_Binney_Ronaldson_Philadelphia

Boston Type Foundry, 1860

http://openlibrary.org/books/OL23734435M/Condensed_specimen_book_from_the_Boston_Type_Foundry.

William Caslon, 1785

http://openlibrary.org/books/OL7073363M/A_specimen_of_printing_types

Cincinnati Type Foundry, 1882

http://openlibrary.org/books/OL7180968M/Fifteenth_book_of_specimens

Cleveland Type Foundry, 1895

http://openlibrary.org/books/OL7191181M/ Catalogue_and_book_of_specimens_of_type_faces_and_printing_material_and_machinery.

Franklin Type Foundry, 1889

http://openlibrary.org/books/OL7042840M/Convenient_book_of_specimens.

Inland Type Foundry, 1897

http://openlibrary.org/books/OL7202326M/Specimen_book_and_catalog

Keystone Type Foundry, 1906

http://openlibrary.org/books/OL7081351M/Abridged_specimen_book_type

Lanston Monotype, 1922

http://openlibrary.org/books/OL7111127M/The_monotype_specimen_book_of_type_faces

MacKellar, Smiths & Jordan, 1891

http://openlibrary.org/books/OL7200550M/Specimens_of_printing_types

Miller & Richard, 1921

http://openlibrary.org/works/OL7893374W/Printing_type_specimens

Montreal Type Foundry, 1850

http://openlibrary.org/works/OL15709714W/Specimens_of_printing_types_and_ornaments

Palmer & Rey, 1884

http://openlibrary.org/books/OL7250331M/New_specimen_book.

Toronto Type Foundry, 1899

http://openlibrary.org/works/OL16048068W/The_latest_type_fashions

Thomas Phinney

I bought a page from the 1400s set in original Jenson on eBay for $70 maybe 5-10 years ago. Not originally printed as a type specimen per se, but lovely to have for a typophile nonetheless.

John Nolan

Thanks Helmut. Great list!

Helmut Wollmersdorfer

John Nolan said:

Thanks Helmut. Great list!

Thanks for the question. Brought new ideas to me and I found another dozen of books.

My interest is very special: Collect shapes of typefaces for identification of the typeface (OFR - Optical Font Recognition) and improvement of OCR.

But searching sources for other interests would be similar and depends mainly on keywords for query terms.

Keywords:

- type (DE: Typen, Figuren, Lettern)
- specimen (FR: specimen, DE: Probe(n), Gesamtprobe, Hauptprobe, Arbeitsprobe, Schriftmuster)
- catalogue (DE: Katalog, Verzeichnis)

E. g. "Schriftmuster" finds 400+ entries of offered used books at ZVAB https://www.zvab.com/servlet/SearchResults?cm_sp=SearchF-_-topnav-_-Results&kn=schriftmuster&sts=t, but most shops do not ship outside Germany. Maybe there are similar platforms in your region, or try Amazon, eBay.

Or you search for names of designs/fonts, designers, type foundries, history of typography/printing etc.

Look into references and links in Wikipedia articles. Sometimes it helps knowing the title, name, author etc. as base for extended search. Some original specimen are hard to find.

E. g. I searched hard to find an original of the very popular Breitkopf-Fraktur (1750), with many recuts after 1850, recuts for Linotype and Monotype, 12+ digital fonts. Per occasion I found a high quality book by Elsevier, 1919, where they restaurated old typeforms of German typefaces, 15th to 19th century, and bingo, one Tertia (16 P) Schwabacher by Breitkopf jun., Kleincicero (12 P, swashed h) Fraktur Breitkopf 1763, and Kleinmittel (14 P, unswashed h) Fraktur Breitkopf 1763.

Helmut Wollmersdorfer

This collection contains 1500 books/documents: https://archive.org/details/letterformarchive

Kasper Pyndt

This is great! Thanks y'all for your contributions!

John Hudson

If you ever visit the Letterform Archive in San Francisco, enquire whether they have any specimens for sale. They often have duplicates of specimens in their collection, which they sell to raise funds.