Wood Type and Printing Collectibles

Wood type, used by printers for the past one and one-half centuries, offers today's collector a vast variety of artistic form and substance. Thousands of different designs and sizes, various woods, numerous manufacturers, and the fact that wood type constitutes truly historic Americana, make such collecting a fascinating activity. Today's uses as decorative items, and as artifacts which still can be used to produce images, add a dimension to such type beyond that offered by many collectibles. And to top it off, there is a challenge in finding wood type, now becoming more scarce. Wood type is only one facet of an enormous variety of printing artifacts which are becoming more attractive as collectibles as time goes by.