Crow#21957
50 Cal.
What style letters(font)was used when engraving initials or bible verse numbers on muzzeloaders in the 1700,s?
Question on engraving
- Thread starter Crow#21957
- Start date
Help Support Muzzleloading Forum:
- Joined
- Jun 17, 2019
- Messages
- 8,626
- Reaction score
- 10,131
Cheeze, every craftsman had his own, probably. There were no freely available dictionaries, and most people were not literate. You'd just have to look at some original material and make a decision on your own taste. The 1st real dictionary was by Johnson, in London in the 18th C., good that we have internet now! It's always fun to look up Bible verses marked on old items.
- Joined
- Nov 26, 2005
- Messages
- 5,263
- Reaction score
- 11,113
Hi,
Most American rifles were not engraved by highly skilled engravers and styles of letters varied a lot with the skill of the engraver. You will see Garamond, Roman, and Baskerville type fonts and many styles of script. Script letters and numbers are easier to engrave and hide low skill work better than block letters like Roman. On many American guns the letters and numbers look like skinny stick letters because the engraver was unskilled and used crude tools. On many British guns, particularly government issued arms, the engraving font was what we call William Caslon old style.
dave
Most American rifles were not engraved by highly skilled engravers and styles of letters varied a lot with the skill of the engraver. You will see Garamond, Roman, and Baskerville type fonts and many styles of script. Script letters and numbers are easier to engrave and hide low skill work better than block letters like Roman. On many American guns the letters and numbers look like skinny stick letters because the engraver was unskilled and used crude tools. On many British guns, particularly government issued arms, the engraving font was what we call William Caslon old style.
dave
Similar threads
