Daniel

There is currently a type specimen book mania among collectors on eBay. The book you were looking at might be worth $20 to $40, maybe a bit more. Much more to folks interested in metal Monotype and the code numbers etc. I have one. It is cool, not as cool as some, but not bad. Specimen books like this are often not in good shape (as they were often extensively used) and collectors seem to do an awful lot of upgrading.

Recently on eBay there was a 1840s specimen book from the Bruce Type Foundry in abnormally excellent condition. Extraordinary rare. It was priced at $9.90 or something with no reserve and completely in the wrong category. The seller sold collector plates, not books. So... I thought, boy oh boy. I mean, boy oh boy. I even wrote to him to verify that it was the orginal and not a later reprint. Well, to make a long story short, "they" slowly found it. I believe it sold at $3,660. Probably what about it was worth to a university collection, which is where it should have gone. Can you imagine the party at the unsuspecting seller's home that night?

Gerald

Awesome info. There's currently a ton of smelly, old, beat up spec books at this shop. Do you have any idea when these Monotype spec books were made or where inside I can find a date?

Gerald, what a story!
You should have driven there and offered him $100 cash-on-the-barrelhead for it.

Daniel, you can figure out the dates by looking at the fonts shown! :-)

hhp

Daniel

Type specimen books are not often dated I'm afraid to say. Sometimes you can find a code (that might indicate date) on the bottom of a page or there may be a letter or notice of date from the foundry early on in the book. Neither the Lanston nor the British Monotype books that I have are dated. There is a huge Monotype site in Switzerland that has tons of information of the most arcane sort. Might be worth a look see.

http://www.letterpress.ch/content.html

Gerald