Our Collection of Poster Types

Poster types are usually made from wood, although other materials are used. We have quite a few founts made from nickel-plated stereotypes with weight-saving metal bases. Others in the literature are made of aluminium or plastic.

Poster types are made in sizes from 48 point upward. Measurement is not usually in points but in `lines' of pica. So the 48 point is called 4-line. Three-inch is 18-line size.

Up to 72 point size, it was usually more efficient to cast the type from matrices. But for sizes much over that, the economics seemed to be in favour of cutting the letters from wood or other material.

Our collection has a few dozen founts, ranging from 4-line to 72-line (one foot high or about 303 mm). Some of these are incomplete founts.

Our collection does not include many really attractive faces. The old catalogs of wood-letter-cutters include some very ornate faces an some sets of two-colour types. Ours are the more work-a-day varieties as used for newspaper posters and sale of livestock posters.

There is much work to be done in curating, identifying and proofing this collection.

Any takers?

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