I looked at the Walden Font Company selection of type faces and found them rather lacking. Most of the choices have look to have been scanned from badly printed sources, and 20th century revisions at that. Of the faces offered in their 18th century selection are Ancient Black, a blackletter that's not too bad; an early 20th version of Caslon, a rather poor and distressed version; Webster, a very distressed version of some early unnamed and completely undistinguished 19th century face. The roundhand is is acceptable, and the ornament selection surprisingly interesting, although again very beat up.
For historically accurate type faces I would recommend ITC's "Founders Caslon" first cut in 1724, and used widely in colonial America (on the Declaration of Independence for example), and for the later 18th century, Linotype Monticello, Baskerville from the Storm Type Foundry, or the beautiful Monotype Bell. An excellent script is Snell Roundhand.
To my mind, using distressed types would be like finishing off your furniture with a last whip of the chain, although I would be interested in other opinions.
Wesley B. Tanner
