I would like to start doing some in depth research into the history and characteristics of some of the blocks that I have. I’ll start with this set of Antique Bold, which, at 4 inches tall is pretty massive. Antique typefaces handle the printing process well. There are no worries about any delicate details that could be lost.

Another reason I chose these blocks because they give such a great view of the end grains of the wood used, and give an idea just how big in diameter the trees needed to be for larger poster type. A lot of very large trees were needed to make end grain blocks for a typeface of this size. This is definitely the least eco friendly set I own. Despite their large size, most of the blocks are actually fairly lightweight, and on close inspection you can see the pinpoint holes in the faces. I would guess this means the wood used to create the type wasn’t as hard a wood as was preferred in wood type creation. There’s something extremely unsettling about exaimining your type and finding holes like these, but I’m assuming it’s not something that has happened due to printing or cleaning, but rather a result of the wood used. The color of the wood is a very dark red color. I’m going to do some more digging and see if I can find out what kind of wood this is.

This set of blocks isn’t branded by a manufacturer, but it matches perfectly with the Antique Specimen in American Wood Type, first shown by Darius Wells in 1828. I wish I had more of the figures, I really love the ones from the specimen sheet, especially the 2.