“Fair Bird” acquaintance card

Photo(s) by Alan Mays on Flickr.


Source: www.flickr.com Uploaded to Flickr by Alan Mays and tagged with “argentine”. License: All Rights Reserved.

A nineteenth-century acquaintance card.

Acquaintance Card.
Fair Bird,
Will you allow me the pleasure of your company this evening? If so, keep this card; if not, return it.
“Between Ourselves.”

The ornamented face is Argentine. According to Nicolete Gray’s research, Besley in London showed it under this name around 1860. Austin Wood had a version with lowercase by 1874. It made its way across the Atlantic to the Farmer foundry in New York, who showed it in their 1867 specimen (albeit without lowercase).

“Fair Bird” is set in Law Italic (1865). The other two typefaces are unidentfied – the bold wide roman is similar to Old Style Bold.

This post was originally published at Fonts In Use

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