Acme Type Foundry

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1. Overview

Chicago. Founded 1939. Harry Burke.

Their 1947 Catalog No. 6 has a section introducing "Acme Foundry Faces" (pp. 36-38). This states that all type shown which was not in this section of the catalog was cast on Thompson or Monotype equipment, but that the type shown in this section was cast on "foundry machines." It is not clear from the catalog whether or not Acme was doing this "foundry machine" casting themselves or was here selling type cast elsewhere. Most of the faces listed in the "Acme Foundry Faces" section bear no indication of origin. Three weights of "Piegnot", however, are noted as "Imported from France" (one would presume from the Piegnot foundry).

2. Specimens, Catalogs, and Price Lists

[click image to read at The Internet Archive]
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Catalog No. 6 (1947)

Specimens and Revised Price List Catalog No. 6, 1947-07-15.

Thanks are due to Jenny Addison, Prop. Lock and Key Press for making this available.

[click image to read at The Internet Archive]
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Supplement No. 1

New Faces from ACME Supplement No. 1. No date, but clearly after 1946 (witness a face named "Bikini").

This specimen is interesting because most of the faces is shows are not in McGrew (at least under the names used here). These include Bikini (an imitation of Trafton Script, a face which was drawn by Howard Allen Trafton for the Bauer Foundry in 1933, Cartune (an imitation of Cartoon, drawn by Trafton for Bauer in 1936), Tango Script, Lorraine, Biscayne, Beachcomber (a lot like Othello, English Monotype series 246), and Bali.

Thanks are due to Jenny Addison, Prop. Lock and Key Press for making this available.

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Catalog No. 10 (1960)

[TO DO: SCAN]

[click image to read]
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Price List No. 1 (1960-08-01)

N.B. The version of this you get by clicking on the image at left is reduced in size and composed of lossy JPEG images (but is only 11 Meg). Should you want it, the full-size version (600dpi, PNG format images), which is 293 Megabytes .

Thanks are due to Jenny Addison, Prop. Lock and Key Press for making this available.

[click image to read at The Internet Archive]
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Handy Index of Foundry Type Faces

Handy Index of Foundry Type Faces: Line Service or Reproduction Proofs. No date, but after Catalog 10.

This index is not offering fonts of type for sale. Rather, it is offering two product/service combinations: Line Service and Reproduction Proofs. See the ../../ (list of) Typefoundry Products for an explanation of these.

Thanks are due to Jenny Addison, Prop. Lock and Key Press for making this available.

3. Advertising

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Announcing New Products

Tri-fold mailable advertising flyer announcing one typeface (Eden Bold and Eden Light in 14, 18, and 24pt), the general availability of "Antique [= 19th century revival] Type and Cuts" ("specimen brochure available upon request"), stock cuts, and several composing room and bindery products (type cases, slug clipper, numbering machines, saddle stapler, benzene cans, padding cement, tweezers, steel perforating and brass rule, Rycoline HI-F88 Type and Roller Wash ("with a high toxicity rating"), pocket clip tweezers, and a pad counter.

N.B. The version of this you get by clicking on the image at left is reduced in size and composed of lossy JPEG images (but is only 5 Meg). Should you want it, the full-size version (600dpi, PNG format images), which is 53 Megabytes .

Thanks are due to Jenny Addison, Prop. Lock and Key Press for making this available.

4. Typefaces

In addition to the "standard" Lanston Monotype faces, Acme offered a number of other typefaces. These included:

[TO DO: list faces in their Supplement No. 1, e.g. "Bikini" as clone of Trafton Script]


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