Vtg Stencils US No. 4

New York Stencil Works revolving Stencil Disc

The Vtg Stencil fonts from astype are based on real-world stencils from several countries.

The US No. 4 design was drawn from a antique US-American stencil wheel plate or circular disc, made by New York Stencil Works. This revolving stencil-plate was invented by Eugene L. Tarbox and patented in 1868. It was a mass produced product and a very common tool in the United States till the mid 1920s.

In 1888 the New York Stencil Works company was owned by Mr. J. D. Mallonee. He was the inventor of many type tools. New York Stencil Works manufactured lots of parts for typewriter companies like Smith Premier, Yost, Columbia, National, Williams, and many others.

The Regular font style is a clean font design featuring a full Latin glyph set including some typical stencil ornaments and tabular figures. The Paint font style is made from truly stenciled letters and features all the letters of the stencil-plate only.

In fact, the design is based on the very popular bold Clarendon typeface, published in 1845 by Thorowgood & Co., London. So I see this design as an early but very close model of the later US Roman stencil typeface.

If you like the later design (Reeses abustable or interlocking stencils) have a look at the Vtg Stencil US No. 2 font. For a font with matching lowercase, please have a look at the US No.1.