Stephen O. Saxe

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1. Overview

Died April 28, 2019 at age 89. See: Hugill-Fontanel, Amelia J. "Stephen O. Saxe, A Partner in Printing History, (1930-2019): https://printinghistory.org/stephen-o-saxe-a-partner-in-printing-history-1930-1929/

Type specimen collector, type collector, printer, scholar, designer, author, and editor. Also a noted authority on the Golding company and its presses, type founding in 19th century New York, the pivotal type caster, 19th century type, and more.

The edition of Loy that he co-edited with Johnston, with comprehensive showings of type and substantial notes and appendices, is one of the most useful reference books available on 19th century American type. He also edited a new edition Annenberg's Type Foundries of America and their Catalogs , which is the basic desk reference for the history of American typefounding.

I owe him a personal debt of gratitude for the extensive help he gave me in researching type. In the few years I knew him (and even though we never met in person or even spoke on the phone) he became a good friend. I miss him greatly.

Saxe {APHA 71 (1986)} listed himself with ca. 150 fonts of metal and 40 fonts of wood type.

2. Reprints from his Collection

2.1. Archive of Amateur Press Catalogues

He began a program of reprints of early printing press and materials catalogs which were targeted at amateur printers. The Stephen O. Saxe Archive of Amateur Press Catalogues is online in two locations:

His Archive of Amateur Press Catalogues includes the following. ("IA" = "Internet Archive," "CR" = "CircuitousRoot")

2.2. Other Reprints

3. Works Available Digitally

Saxe's flickr photograph site was at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sos222/sets/

The following works by Stephen O. Saxe are reprinted on CircuitousRoot, with his kind permission:

4. Bibliography

Annenberg, Maurice. Type Foundries of America and their Catalogs. Second Edition. (New Castle, DE: Oak Knoll Press, 1994).

This is the basic desk reference on the history of American typefounding. Saxe edited this second edition, adding to it.

Loy, William E., Alastair M. Johnston and Stephen O. Saxe, eds. Nineteenth-Century American Designers and Engravers of Type. New Castle, DE: Oak Knoll Books, 2009.

This is a modern edition collecting Loy's series of articles "Designers and Engravers of Type" which ran in the Inland Printer (1898-1900) . It has substantial editorial apparatus, including a very useful list of 19th century American type design patents, and is profusely illustrated with specimens of the types cut by these engravers. It should be considered essential for any typefounder.

SOS and John Depol. American Iron Hand Presses. New Castle, DE: Oak Knoll Press, 1992.

SOS et. al. Bullheads & Broadsides: Job Printing in the 19th-Century Seaport . NY: South Street Seaport Museum, 1985. Small quarto, 63pp.

SOS. Those Golding Oldies at the Printing House at the Sign of the Four Ducks: Being an Account of the Acquisition of these Presses and their Glowing Qualities, Along with a Brief History Hitherto Unpublished of Mr. William H. Golding and his Presses . Wichita, KS: Four Ducks Press, 1981.

Saxe, Stephen O. "Nineteenth Century Type Collections in America." The APHA Newsletter. No. 71 (May/June 1986): 9-10 (whole issue).

SOS. Old-Time Advertising Cuts and Typography: 184 Plates from the Boton Type and Stereotype Foundry Catalog (1832) NY: Dover Publications, 1989. 184pp.

SOS. "The Type Founders of New York City, 1840 - 1900." Printing History. Vol. 2, No. 1, Whole No. 3 (November 1, 1980): 4-19.

An extraordinarily detailed look at all of the persons and businesses listed as typefounders in NY city directories of the period. Most of them never made it into Annenberg, because they either printed no catalogs or no catalogs survive. With illustrations of several foundry buildings and portraits of George Bruce (Sr.) and James Conner.