Page Aetna, Morgans & Wilcox Aetna, Hamilton No. Wilcox, James Edward Hamilton, More, Please View Our Other Auctions Here. There are a total of 86 pieces: a nearly complete uppercase letter set (missing the letter T), a complete number set, and several pieces of punctuation/special characters. Please note that there are 83 pieces in the photo. We found an additional 3 periods in another drawer after we took the photos that will be included. The As are marked HEBER WELLS in a semicircle with NY at the center. We believe this to be a very rare set of Heber Wells Aetna or Painters Roman as described by James McGill professor and font expert Luc Devroye. To us it looks very much like the Wm. Typeface Aetna, designed by Page in 1870 (we currently have a set of 10-line 1.66 Page Aetna Double Extra Condensed listed). When overlaid it matched up quite well with Aetna Class B as found on p. 24 of the 1878 specimen book Specimens of Wood Type Manufactured by the Wm. Page Wood Type Co. And on Devroyes site. It can also be compared to the Morgans & Wilcox Aetna Class O found on p. 34 of the 1890 Condensed Specimen Book of Wood Type Manufactured by Morgans & Wilcox Manfg Co. Or similarly to the Hamilton No. 62 Class O found on p. Hebers father Darius Wells was the first to ever offer a printed specimen book of wood type and, more importantly, the first to ever offer routed wood type, or routed anything for that matter. Darius invented the lateral router and apparently, according to the Inland Printer in 1906, he was the first to use the words rout and routing as applied to a mechanical process. See our other listings to view the entire collection, including other Heber Wells lots, and the original type cabinet in which this set was housed. As would be expected, the set overall exhibits wear appropriate with its age with individual pieces varying in condition, and some or all of them having some or all of the following: general wear, chips, scratches, nicks, dents, gouges, edge wear, dirty and/or stained areas, marks, discoloration, vestigial ink, adhered paper remnants on reverse, etc. A few of the pieces also have some large missing pieces of wood from the side areas. We are unsure as to what type of wood the set is made from. The set weighs roughly 1 lb 7 oz. This is one of many great items we currently have listed, including many more awesome sets of rare antique letterpress wood type: more Heber Wells, William Page & Company, Morgans & Wilcox, Hamilton, more. View our other auctions here. We always do our best to satisfy our customers and work hard to offer excellent service. Your feedback is very important to us, and we welcome any comments or suggestions you might have to help us improve our service. The item “Large 5 Line 0.83 Heber Wells Aetna Painters Roman Letterpress Wood Type 86 pc” is in sale since Saturday, May 28, 2016. This item is in the category “Business & Industrial\Printing & Graphic Arts\Printing & Graphic Essentials\Type, Cuts & Printing Blocks”. The seller is “bensmumma” and is located in Sutton, Massachusetts. This item can be shipped worldwide.
- Brand: Heber Wells
- Country//Region of Manufacture: United States