Clarendon Wide Bold
Gilbert balls are best known for being used in rugby. The picture on the left is a key chain of a tiny Gilbert ball I have collected from a rugby tournament. I was able to determine the font using whatthefont.com. Most of the fonts that were listed, were different types of Clarendon. Small little history about the font, is that it is a slab-serif released in 1845 by Thorowgood and Co. in London. And the designer of this font is Robert Besely.
Now, looking through them all, almost gave me a headache. I was able to distinguish that it was Clarendon Wide Bold by looking at the tail of the R and how much it curves up, the thickness of the letters especially from thin to thick, and the spacing between the letters. If you look closely between the regular bold and the wide bold in the image provided, for example you can see the spacing difference clearly between the I and the L.
Typography Fall 19 