Most American metal type foundries as well as Monotype, Linotype, and Ludlow, made faces along the lines of "Old English." If I recall right [my source books are buried at home], Monotype Old English was available in a range of sizes.

ATF made numerous faces in this style. Among them are Typo Text, Waldorf Text, Engravers Text, Wedding Text, Shaw Text, Engravers Old English, American Text, and Cloister Black.

Mostly in the USA these were used for "society" printing: wedding invitations, calling cards.

I'm not sure I'd say many of these are actually very close to true Frakturs. European foundries made in metal some faces closer to true Frakturs, and I think some American foundries did also.

As for your desire to "date these sorts", perhaps you can proof them or photograph them and put up something for us to look at.

powers

Unfortunately my digicam is broken and the camera of my mobile phone is really crappy.
I can tell that they don't have any signatures (like here: http://de.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Datei:Gu%C3%9Fmarke_DSCN0493.j...) and that they are made of lead.

The dealer said he found them on a local junkyard.
Since this kind of "wedding letterpress printing" isn't that widespread here in Germany so I guess they were once manufactured for the usage in a "real" printing company.

Do you know some kind of a overview of typefaces of the Old English family so I might try it on my own?

Kindest regards,
RoyBasch

English Monotype’s ‘Old English Text’, series 456 in their metal types, was an adaptation, to use a polite word, of the ‘Cloister Black’ or ‘Cloister Text’ of American Type Founders, which appears in their specimen book of 1906.

This was the ATF version, with which Morris Fuller Benton was associated, of some genuine textura gothic types, like Priory Text, that were cast at that time in US and British typefoundries, mostly originating in the 18th century but based on types used in old English printing.

Making the new type meant ‘modernizing and removing the irregularities of’ the historic faces, as Mac McGrew rightly says. It’s well done, but some people might think that all the life of the original type has been eliminated along with the irregularities. I do. But there doesn't currently seem to be much choice, either among digital types or metal ones.

Fraktur is a different kind of gothic.

Hi, I'm doing a history project on Cloiister Black. Would you be able to help me with some info, such as why it was developed, historical events during this time, what influenced its design, political changes during this time, etc. Any help is much appreciated.
-Sharon

Cloister Black was designed in 1903 by Morris Fuller Benton. There is a wealth of info available on the web about Benton, as well as the year 1903...