Specimen Book & Catalogue 1923, American Type Founders Company.
Description: American Type Founders Company, 1923. Hardcover. Quarto size, approx. 1148 pp. American Type Founders was founded by a merger, in the 1890s, of twenty-three type foundries and by the early 1920s, they had come to dominate the type market in the United States. "The 1923 American Type Founders Specimen Book and Catalog was the last comprehensive specimen book the ATF issued. It is without question the most important American type specimen book of the 20th century holding a wealth of color printing, design ideas, and a large section of printers' equipment." Dark blue gray cloth boards, tan cloth shelf back with black lettering, black lettering on the front board with title within a decorative border, recessed, decorative endpapers with the logo of American Type Founders in the middle of each page, the volume opens with a "limitation page" with a space for the catalogue number, blank in this volume. The title page is framed with a decorative red border enclosing a ruled black border, verso of title page is an illustration from a photograph of the "Central Plant of the American Type Founders Company", followed by the approximately 1130 pages of (i) type specimens which are richly embellished with a prolific use of different ink colors, different papers, pp. 41-44, 101-108, and 603-610 double leaves, folded; and (ii) type cases, presses, and other equipment which would be needed at a printing press; at the rear of the book is an Index, double-columned, which brings the page count to a whopping 1148 (note this is approximate, as some pages are sub-lettered); quarto size (10.25" by 7.25" and 2.75" thick)