An 1766 Ephrata Indenture: A Fancy Cut and Caslon Fonts

Beginning in the mid 1700s, American printers became enamored with the finely-crafted British fonts designed by William Caslon, an English gunsmith and typeface designer. Caslon fonts became some of the most popular typefaces of that century, throughout the English-speaking world.  ...and the Pennsylvania-German speaking world.

The Ephrata print shop printed this indenture in 1760s using Caslon fonts (or perhaps Caslon-wanna-be fonts from a competing type foundry in London or Glasgow, Scotland.)

A Caslon type specimen sheet is Here, if you want to try to figure out if these Cloister fonts are "real" Caslon or "competing-with" Caslon.

In 1766, John Dunlap used Caslon fonts to print the Declaration of Independence. Even today, Caslon is always a safe bet.