For two months now we’ve been casting “bold, spiky” borders, and making weak jokes about using them as a fence to protect your copy. I wasn’t planning to ride that lame horse into another month. But quite by chance the matrices selected from the vault for the next new release were yet another bold spiky border, and in my estimation, of superior elegance to either of the previous ones. The back story is that these were among a large quantity of matrices Skyline fortuitously rescued several years ago from a defunct foundry in India. In sorting them all out, it appeared that these two were corner and runner for the same border design. The latter was a stamped aluminum display mat of the style that Lanston Monotype produced in the post-WWII era, and the other a mortised, electrodeposited brass foundry-style mat. Very different, and requiring different fittings on the casting machine to produce. Inspection of trial casts laid to rest all skepticism—the elements did unquestionably go together. Both were marked for a 12 point body, but oddly, that was too small: the face measured right at 13 points. We changed up to a 14 point body and that worked out just fine. Here then for your printing pleasure is Border No. U-30. Despite the mismatched mats, this project came out particularly well, and is indeed a lovely classical design. The nearly vertical beards resulted in excellent alignment and contiguity of the printed image. We’re proud of this one.
As planned, an 80-font recasting of Arboret in 12pt was successfully completed in February. Both sizes of that face, and the accompanying Ornament Suite, are now well-stocked and available. The never-ending list of other low and soldout items was whittled away a little bit, with restock castings also accomplished for Borders No. 1313, 1558, and Collection No. 43.
Remember our one-day Free Shipping special staged each fall on National Letterpress Day (9/18)? That event has been so successful that we’re launching an annual spring sale as well. And what better date than Pi Day, 3/14! (A tip o’ the pica pole to our friend in zip code 84124 for this inspiration.) For those of you who are really new at this, the Greek letter Pi not only represents a mathematical constant, but also is a traditional letterpress term for metal type that is accidentally dropped, spilled, or otherwise hopelessly mixed up. On March 14 only, enter Coupon Code 3/14 when you place an order on the Skyline web site and you’ll get a discount equal to our flat $10.00 domestic shipping charge. First, last and only notice, so load up your wish list and be ready to pounce.