Feeling the need for some ridiculously frou-frou type? Got just the thing for you: French Plate Initials in 36 point. These are cast from aftermarket Ludlow matrices. Good for drop-caps or monograms. Enjoy, dahling.
Ever heard of the “Spaceless Job Case”? Neither had I until a few years ago when we cleared out the last hot metal shop in Tucson. This one-man operation had survived on union work, the old guy presumably being the last and only union printer in town; now long gone and the family was finally cleaning out the building. The one and only type cabinet there was a Hamilton “Wisconsin” No. 23, flush-front with cast iron pulls, three-quarter size—rare enough, but the 16 matching cases were of an odd layout. With some detective work I found it and the cabinet in the Hamilton 1905 catalog:
Look carefully and you’ll see that all boxes for quads and spacing are missing, and the otherwise standard Cal job layout has shifted to swallow up that space. As the caption says, it’s intended to be used with a companion Q&S case somewhere at hand. What a colossally stupid idea! Apparently the industry thought so too, for in my 64 years of printing I have never seen another such case. The good news: although the cabinet was painted chocolate brown, it had its original ornate metal name plate and was in remarkably good condition. I had it professionally restored to its original beauty and and filled it with 16 sizes of Parsons and Parsons Bold. It now occupies a place of honor in the Skyline pressroom.
And if you ever wondered why type cases of old were lined with paper, here’s an interesting note from that 1905 catalog: All our Cases have 3-ply bottoms covered with the best quality of Manila paper. The paper absorbs the moisture from the type and prevents it entering the wood, dissolving the glue and destroying the Case bottom. We always use the paper simply because it improves and prolongs the life of the case. I once heard that a duty given to the shop apprentice (printer’s devil) was “re-papering the cases”. Those were the days! Gone forever.