A loosely related group of nearly monoline sans serifs with
oldstyle roman proportions. Appearing in the 1860s, these are some
of the earliest examples of sans typefaces with a lowercase and
ranging numerals meant for text setting.
The earliest known appearance is October 1860, in MacKellar,
Smiths & Jordan’s periodical of new releases [The Typographic
Advertiser; Shaw]. In 1860, Boston announced Gothic
No. 5 in their house organ [The Printers'
Bulletin, Nov. 1860]. In 1865, Bruce showed
Gothic No. 4 [Tracy,
specimen], later known as Light-Face Gothic No.
201 [De
Vinne]. Farmer, Little & Co had a variation also called
Gothic No. 4, and a smaller Gothic No. 7.
Cincinnati had Gothic No. 3. BB&S More…
A loosely related group of nearly monoline sans serifs with oldstyle roman proportions. Appearing in the 1860s, these are some of the earliest examples of sans typefaces with a lowercase and ranging numerals meant for text setting.
The earliest known appearance is October 1860, in MacKellar, Smiths & Jordan’s periodical of new releases [The Typographic Advertiser; Shaw]. In 1860, Boston announced Gothic No. 5 in their house organ [The Printers' Bulletin, Nov. 1860]. In 1865, Bruce showed Gothic No. 4 [Tracy, specimen], later known as Light-Face Gothic No. 201 [De Vinne]. Farmer, Little & Co had a variation also called Gothic No. 4, and a smaller Gothic No. 7. Cincinnati had Gothic No. 3. BB&S had Gothic No. 6. Gronau had a Breite Magere Grotesque.
Shapes vary between sizes: some had a distinctive open-bowled ‘g’ also found in Commercial Type’s (more modulated) Marr Sans, derived from Scottish type of the 1870s.
