Single-groove Streamer Borders

William H. Page Wood Type Co
24 line
These borders were first shown in the
January, 1880 Page’s Wood Type
Album.

Streamers were a variation on Reverses.
Reverses were wood letters cut into a
decorative or solid ground to give the
semblance of a white letter on a colored
field. Streamers included terminating
ornamental blocks used to produce a
finished shape with the visual appear-
ance of a long narrow banner, flag or
pennant that held reversed letters.

Edwin Allen, in George Nesbitt’s 1838
specimen book, showed Black Ground
the first Reverse design in wood. J.G.
Cooley showed a kind of chromatic

reverse in c.1859 as a single color filled
border used as a background for type.
Hamilton & Katz also showed a similar
design in 1884. Kelly noted in Ameri-
can Wood Type that “the printer could
assemble [the borders] … print in color,
and then overprint in black with con-
ventional wood types.”

The first fully realized Streamers were
introduced as wood type by William H.
Page in his 1874 Specimens of Chro-
matic Wood Type, Borders, Etc..