Typophile

Woodtype similar to Binner

Donald H. Tucker

This image purports to be "A case of wood type from the Hamilton Wood Type & Printing Museum." I found it at http://smumn-cn.blogspot.ca/2010/08/case-of-wood-type-from-hamilton-wood....
It looks like a variation on ATF's Binner [Cumming 1898, patented by Phinney D30253 in 1899]. But the leg of R terminates with a swoop to a big vertical wedge instead of a tapering brush style stroke. ATF's Binner is sans serif while this has tiny serifs like Inland's Corbitt [1900]. The Beak on G and the tail on Q ares flared. Other letters probably also differ in detail, but they are not shown in the image.
I do not have ready access to Rob Roy Kelly's American Woodtype but could consult a copy at major galley library if this design is included in his collection of specimens.
I would very much appreciate your help in identifying the font [perhaps it is unnamed but has a Hamilton font number?] and finding a more complete character set, whether in Kelly or elsewhere.
Thank you.
Don

Nick Curtis

It was quite common for woodtype faces not to have names, but simply numbers. Rob Roy Kelly's book shows a number of examples where this is the case. This was also true in the instance of the inspiration for my font Matamoros NF, which is similar to the typeface shown, with a few exceptions, most notable the Os…

Donald H. Tucker

Thanks Nick. I like your variation on Binner with its flavor of Inland's Inland in the serpentine O and elsewhere. I read Rob Roy Kelly's book several years ago and noted that named woodtype fonts were the exception. I take it from your post that the book does not include a face that is a close match to this one. Someday I should visit the Hamilton Wood Type & Printing Museum to see what they have that is not available as specimen images online or published by Kelly or otherwise.
Don

Captured from web.archive.org on 6 Aug 2013. view this capture