Just in time for printing your Halloween Party invitations, here’s a spooky old face that Boris Karloff would have loved. Wedge Gothic originated 129 years ago with Chicago’s famous Barnhart Bros. & Spindler foundry. It stayed around longer than most 19th century faces, appearing in the 1925 catalog renamed Japanet, and was produced under that name by ATF in mid-century as one of their few antique revivals. We have cast 110 fonts and it’s on the shelf for immediate shipment.
The Mergenthaler Linotype Company produced a dazzling array of matrices for decorative material over the years. That section of their giant 1939 catalog fills 133 pages. We have the right molds and accessories to cast foundry type from Linotype matrices, whether typographical or decorative (all the Skyline Borders with F- or G- designations are cast from Lino mats). Our inventory of decorative linecaster mats is very substantial, but far from complete, and we’re always on the lookout for anything we don’t have. There’s a certain vine-and-fruit border that for many years has been most sought after, but ever elusive. Just recently my old friend John Horn miraculously came up with a handful of these mats, and passed them along to Skyline. We wasted no time in casting them! With all due gloating we hereby present Border No. G-71. Muchas gracias, John!
This design suggests that it could be enhanced by a second color for the fruit—say, orange or yellow. We actually did experiment with that, proving up 8, 10, and 12 point solid dots or “bullets” cast on 24 x 48pt body in register to match up with the base color. Another old friend, John Finch in Colorado, came to the rescue with a mat for the size we didn’t have. But in the end I just couldn’t get the look I had envisioned and that idea was shelved, at least for now.
Recast and back in stock: Lexington and Paramount, both in 24 point, and Border No. F-755.
Fall brings the fabulous Los Angeles Printers Fair, staged by the International Printing Museum on October 22-23 (printersfair.com). We’ll be there with three sagging tables loaded with shiny new Fonts, Borders, Collections and Initials for you to choose from. (Free delivery to the Fair of orders placed by Oct 20. When you check out, select Local Pickup as your no-cost shipping option, and type “Bring to LAPF” in the Notes box .) See you there!