Typophile

Oddly Familiar

John Savard

I came across this typeface, named MacFarland, while searching the specimen books of ATF, Barnhart Brothers, and Inland for information about their uniform line systems:

It appears in the 1907 Inland Type Foundry catalog, with the notation "Cut by Permission of Genzsch & Heyse", so it apparently existed some time before that catalog, and had achieved a significant degree of popularity.

In any event, despite the fact that this typeface does have a lowercase k and an uppercase D, not shown in the illustration, that are sufficiently distinctive that it appears to have been intended for display... the sharp serifs and strong angled stress reminded me of a certain contemporary typeface from 1935 which had recently been embroiled in controversy concerning an alleged earlier origin in 1904.

Since 1907 is after 1904, and this typeface is not as close a match as that of William Starling Burgess, this may not be a significant find...

Subsequent Google searches have allowed me to learn that this face dates from 1897 or earlier, and its original name was Römische Antiqua; A. D. Farmer and Son sold it as Bradford; Lanston Monotype as well as Inland Type Founders called it MacFarland, and it was also known as Haddonian.

It's funny they got it from Europe,
because this is basically a DeVinne.

hhp

Captured from web.archive.org on 15 May 2012. view this capture