This month we bring you a type face that McGrew describes as “lively and sparkling, precise but not mechanical”. It was designed for American Type Founders by Lucian Bernhard, a German-American typographic artist who gave his name to a number of highly regarded designs. This is a much sought-after face—whenever we list a used font, it sells right away. Now we are proud to offer Bernhard Modern Roman in 24 point, brand new. The 18 point size is in the queue and will soon follow.
Bernhard Modern Roman was released in 1937 as a refinement of the earlier Bernhard Booklet. Oddly, it does not appear in the 1941 catalog, ATF’s last hardbound specimen—but it does show up in the 48-page Supplement of “more modern types” to that volume, issued simultaneously.
Recast and back in stock: good ol’ Collection No. 1, that favorite box of ten different sets of 36pt decorative corners. As the ordinal implies, this was the very first Collection that Skyline ever cast for sale, back in our nascent days twenty years ago. These are wonderfully versatile. Use them as corners with any kind of rule, or gusset-wise inside a rule corner, or assemble a quad of them corner-to-corner for a big stand-alone ornament. With this run we have now produced 227 of this Collection.
Used quads & spacing have always met with good demand, such that we have a hard time keeping it in stock (and eventually started producing it ourselves). But this month the supply has gone way up in virtue of a sweep of the warehouse. (A figurative sweep, not a floor sweep. Maybe I should say we scoured the place. —Searched it, that is, not scrubbed it. Scrubbed meaning cleaned, not cancelled. But that’s immaterial since it’s what we didn’t do.)
Yes, this news release comes a day early. We’re on the road pre-dawn today for another one of those exciting treasure hunts! It will be the fourth truck & trailer load in recent years from this particular private shop in a remote California town; the old gentleman agreed at last to let go of all the remaining type. Off we go.