Stephenson, Blake - Specimen of Printing Types, Borders, Ornaments, Plain and Fancy Brass Rules, &c.

Specimen of Printing Types, Borders, Ornaments, Plin and Fancy Brass Rules, &c. 8vo, Title, 40p (reduced price list), 208 leaves, Stephenson, Blake & Co., Sheffield, 1895.

Printed in black, sepia and some other colours (mostly) on oneside of the page only. Includes Abbey Text, Antiques, Charlemagne, Clumps, Commercial script, De Vinne, Elephant, Etrurian, Flemish, Grotesques (many sorts), Hair Line, Hogarth, Mercantile Italic, Old Style (many varieties), Ornamented Saxon Black, Type-Writer, Veronese, etc, etc, plus a great many combination rules, ornaments, rules, borders. Grained olive-green cloth, decorated in black, titled and decorated in gilt. Gutta-percha perished with nearly all leaves loose and consequently a few chips to the edges of a few pages. Nevertheless, apparently complete and generally in very good fresh condition. An excellent speciment produced at the time when SB were resisting the introduction of the "point system".

There is an interesting section at the rear which might repay study, mostly of 5- and 6-line types (Elongated, Sans Surryphs, Condensed): 'These founts are cast by Hand Mould, from old Matrices, and cannot be recommended'.