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Counterproof

Bookplate engraving

A counterproof is a mirror-pulled impression taken directly off a freshly inked plate, made to check the engraving before it goes to press, and mine came from a conservator who...

Plate Mark

Bookplate engraving

Plate Mark is the foundry's first typeface, and the one I didn't go looking for. I bought a dealer's box of estate-sale ephemera for three banknote proof sheets I wanted...

Promissory

Banknote engraving

Banknote engravers of the 1860s were solving a problem type designers rarely face on purpose: making letters that are almost impossible to copy by hand. Aldous and Kerr's counter for...