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ABOUT

Darius Wells

This New York printer, was the first to produce wood type commercially, in 1827, after having invented the lateral router with David Bruce. Saxe says that the preferred woods were maple, pear, and cherry, and to a lesser extent boxwood, mahogany, and holly. Maple won out by 1850. His first specimen book (1828) now resides at Columbia University. Wells, the inventor, was born in Johnstown, NY, in 1800, and died in Paterson, NJ, in 1875. His company was first called D. Wells&Co., but becomes Wells&Webb in 1839 when Wells forms a partnership with E.R. Webb, who had earlier that year bought the company of Leavenworth and Debow from George Bruce. In 1854, Wells sells his partnership to Webb, and so we have E.R. Webb&Co. Webb dies in 1864, and the company reverts to Heber Wells, the youngest son of Darius Wells, Alexander Vanderburgh and Henry Low---it is now Vanderburgh, Wells&Co. Hever Wells buys out the others, and the company becomes just Heber Wells. This last company was absorbed by Hamilton in 1898.

Revivals of the wood types of Darius Wells include AWT Page Antique Black (2013, Dick Pape; after an 1828 typeface by Darius Wells) and AWT Wells Roman Extrabold (2013, Dick Pape; after an 1828 fat typeface typeface by Darius Wells).

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