January was Bernhard Fashion month at Skyline. We did a second casting of the 18 point (110 fonts), this time including the Spanish accents previously offered separately. A run of Lowercase Supplements was done as well, so you can really fill up your case if you wish to. The 42-on-36pt set of standard and alternate initials was also recast. Our stock of 24 point BF is getting low, so that’s in the queue for another casting too. A peculiarity of this 1929 face is that it has a dual standard for vertical alignment—that is, the baseline for lowercase is higher than that of the capitals. That was not unusual among the ornate 19th century faces but is rare in 20th century designs. Also recast and back in stock is Cochin 24pt, now with a new Lowercase Supplement, and Quads & Spacing 18pt.
The bigger story for this month though is our release of yet another antique revival from the Chas. Broad matrix collection. We had previously attempted to cast this face in 18pt (there are also matrices in 12) but were foiled, after quite a bit of work, by failure of several of the electrodeposited matrices. For that reason this new size was undertaken with some degree of trepidation and the run was kept relatively small (45 fonts) so we had less at stake to lose. To our great relief the project met with success. It was a tricky casting—with the letterforms irregular and slanted we had to WAG* the kerns, both left and right, and alignment and set width as well. A number of characters were cast a second or even third time, in pursuit of perfection, as we went through a progressive series of ten or twelve press proofs. We expect this to be a popular item and now that the process has been proven out we’ll be doing a second and larger casting without delay. Here then for your printing pleasure is the unique Circular Script, 24pt.
Here in the foundry, where the metal meets the mold and opportunities for error and failure are endless, that obstreperous 18 point came to be known by the punny working title of Cursive Script. The 24 on the other hand, while more cooperative, seemed to us not so much Circular but as rather like everyday handwriting (not even taught in public schools any more) for that era, and earned the in-shop handle of Nondescript Script.
One final comment on this face: in the numerous hobby and commercial shops I’ve bought out over many years, there has been a fair amount of antique-revival type from Charlie Broad’s Typefounders of Phoenix—most of these faces being now in turn cast and offered by Skyline—but I have never encountered a single font of Circular Script. It’s just not out there. Now, some 60 years later, we’re fixing that. Oh, and you can thank Heidi M. in Zip Code 93923 for sweet-talking us into undertaking this project.
*If you don’t know what this acronym means, ask any military veteran.