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Unknown Typeface on Reed Organ Stops
By Wallace Venable

John A. Tuttle said, "I'm trying to find out the name of a particular
font that's used on the stop faces of a Cornish reed organ."

First of all, on really old stuff, there is no reason to assume that
a standardized font was used.  The stop faces were embossed with the
titles, and it may have been done with a stamp (or from a die) which
was specially engraved by hand for the purpose.

I looked at several of the pictures, and I see that in some cases the
exact form of the letters varies between stops.  In particular, the
"dot over the i" and the "y" at the top of some "l" character varies.
This makes me think that hand engraved dies/molds/whatever were used to
make the stamps and that you will not find a font that fits perfectly.

You probably don't want to do it, but you could create a font by scanning
the required letters and using software such as Type 3.1 - OpenType
font editor for typeface design, see http://cr8.netfirms.com/type.html 
I have used the previous version of the product, and found it excellent.

Wallace Venable


(Message sent Tue 13 Dec 2011, 20:05:59 GMT, from time zone GMT-0500.)

Key Words in Subject:  Organ, Reed, Stops, Typeface, Unknown
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