Malcolm Steam Printer business card
Photo: Richard Sheaff. License: All Rights Reserved.
This printer’s trade card / business card from the 1870s was printed in three colors on gloss coated stock. It features five different typefaces. The bichromatic caps filled with stars and stripes are from Johnson’s National, designed by Julius Herriet, Sr. and patented 1856.
This is an exceedingly rare card, I only know of one example. Its exact date is unknown. Greenback, the bold upright cursive with split shade, was designed by Herman Ihlenburg in 1870 and patented by MacKellar, Smiths & Jordan a year later, so it can’t be any older than that. In 1879, one Robert Malcolm was publishing The Masonic Newspaper from the mentioned address at No. 49 Cedar Street, New York.
“Steam” is in Antique Extended and “New York” in italic caps from a Modern/Scotch. The grotesque used for “Near William” is unidentified.
For a second example of Civil War-era patriotic type, see the “God and Our Native Land” envelope. It features a typeface that is not exactly the same as the one shown here.
This post was originally published at Fonts In Use