VISUALCHEMIST

Finding vintage wood type for sale is like looking for the latest iPhone on the first day of release. There just isn’t enough to go around, everyone wants their hands on it, and if you see it on eBay, good luck to you and your wallet!

I was fortunate enough to stumble on some rather inexpensive SignPress wood type. And while I opened up the window to let in some fresh warm air, Brad J. of Mukwonago, WI., was out dropping my package off at the post office in -12 degrees and was bracing for an evening with a -40 degree windchill. I had never heard of Mukwonago until this point, and now, whenever I look at a map or hear “Wisconsin,” I can think of Brad and Linda, and the awesome wood type they’ve passed along to me. I can assure them that these vintage wood letters are going to enjoy the rest of their days in this beautiful Southern California climate.

As I organized the box of 200+ jumbled characters into my empty type case (drawer), I was pleasantly surprised to find that I was only missing a capital A and an M. Altogether, I acquired a set of (font unknown at this point) san serif capitals, lowercase, numbers, punctuation, and a script lowercase set of Murray Hill. Not a bad purchase at all. I also discovered a little scribble on one of the cent symbols that says “Jeff Gibson sucks.” I don’t know who Jeff is, but whoever he is, someone obviously thinks he isn’t worth a cent, and it will forever remain on this tiny piece of letterpress history. Priceless.