This is our favorite single piece of wood type that we have in our collection.

Sometime if I get a serious bit of energy it would be wonderful to try and develop a typeface based on this one ampersand.

When you look at it you can just see the wheels turning in the person-that-made-it’s mind as he has a general idea of a way to make shadow type. Anyone out there got another that looks like it might be part of this face?

We are getting ready to have the image made into T-shirts for Lead Graffiti to maybe wear at the National Stationery Show.

During our basic type composition workshops one of the projects we do is a specimen card. This helps us put samples from our collection down on paper and gets our participants to really look at a job case. This past Sunday one of our participants was composing with Excelsior Script, originally from the McKellar, Smiths, & Jordan typefoundry in Philadelphia. I think the pin mark on these had an AT on it (I’ll go and look that back up). It was the first time we had used this type.

As it turned out it has quite an odd architecture to the sorts. We hope we can find someone that can explain the logic.

The type is an ornate face which requires a great deal of kerning, requiring many of the letters to overhang their neighbors. Normally when letters overhang like this the overhang is flat and physically rests on the shoulder of the adjacent sort. In the instance of Excelsior Script the bottoms of the overhang aren’t flat, but supported by a triangular buttress you can see below.

The obvious question is why have that angular support versus the flat overhang that would gain support from the adjacent letters? And why would they be at different angles? That seems like a lot of work to go to and also magnifies the potential for damage to the type.

We broke two Ts trying to do the specimen sheet and decided to quit before we completely ruined the font. We weren’t using much impression at all. Our font has no capital Ws to start. Anyone reading this have a W or maybe a whole font (especially if it is from McKellar, Smiths & Jordan) they would part with just so we have a complete version?

Anyone know of any other typefaces that use this kerning strategy?

It’s strange how an experience can seem inconsequential, but over time can mutate into an obsession. We have two such letterpress experiences involving large pages of large metal type, both occurring in England. And while I took dozens of photos at both spaces I didn’t take a single one of the images of the type that would come to haunt us.

The first experience came in 2004 when we were taking a week-long letterpress workshop with Claire Bolton at Alembic Press, just outside of Oxford, England. She would print large book pages for the Reuters news service each time a Reuters journalists was killed in the line of duty. Reuters would write a short biography and Claire would print ten copies of the bio on two sheets. These would be distributed to the various Reuters offices and placed in an unfortunately ever-expanding book. The typography was 30 point Garamond with 18 points of leading set on a 75 pica measure and printed on her Albion iron hand press. The field of type was stunning.

Claire Bolton (right) during one of our visits with a group of my students.

The second experience came on a visit to the studio of London letterpress printer, Ian Mortimer. He printed a large sheet listing important donors to the Royal Academy of Art. As I remember, there was the year in red, followed by names of important donors in black. The next year he would add the new year in red and continue down the sheet. The whole page was treated as one continuous paragraph with the texture of those colorful years sprinkled down through the sheet. The page might have been as large as 24″ x 30″ or so, printed on Ian’s Albion.

Ian Mortimer (center) showing type specimen sheets from his book Ornamented Types which was the catalyst for us starting our lives as letterpress printers.

When we first started looking for an iron handpress, we had these two projects in mind. We wanted to do large pages of type. Speeches, dedications, opening sheets in large portfolios, etc. So, finally we got both a 25″ x 38″ Hoe and a 21″ x 29″ Albion iron handpress which shifted our focus to obtaining large metal type. We could do one of these pages in photopolymer, but we wanted to be able to do it in metal.

On Thursday, February 19th we traveled to Washington, D.C. to see Roland Hoover at his Pembroke Press to pick up that large type that we think will realize our field of dream type. Roland was in desperate need of some space in his crowded shop to accommodate a number of cases of wood type and had offered to sell Lead Graffiti a run of Garamond (roman & italic) from 14 point to 72 point. Additionally, he was willing to part with 72, 84, and 96 point Caslon (roman & italic). Almost all of the large type is foundry metal.

A sample of the 96 point Caslon.

For some photos of moving the type, click here.

We’ve developed a system at Lead Graffiti to keep our metal type spacing more easily organized. Typically there are cells in type cases for the various widths of spacing (double/triple quads, em-quads, en-quads, 3/em, 4/em, 5/em, brasses, and coppers). Our system keeps the spacing all in one place instead of spreading it out over lots of cases (few of our cases have it sorted very well and fewer still have a complete offering). It is time consuming and frustrating to need 4/em spacing and to have to hunt for it among our 500 cases of metal type.

So, we designed a cabinet that would hold cases for all of our spacing material for each type size.

It works quite well for us (especially for workshops). We can see exactly what we have, find it quickly, and redistribute the spacing fairly accurately after a job.

In our search, the best spacing case we found was at Home Depot ($4.95 as we remember). Sold as a clear, plastic, lidded case with customizable compartments for holding small parts, it is about 14″(w) x 9″ (d) x 2″ (h). There are subtle things about the Home Depot cases that work better for us than others that we found either in hardware stores or online. Each cell has a rounded bottom which makes it easy to grab and slide out even the smallest metal spacing. The cases are made with rigid horizontal dividers which add support: a full one can weigh about 10 pounds. Even so, each case is quite portable to wherever we are working. The downside is that if the case is dropped, the plastic will shatter. The illustration below of a 24 point spacing case shows how we generally organize the cells.

Sometimes there are variations between the different sizes as some of our larger type can have 6, 8, or 12/em and others have 1.5 em-quads. We just add appropriate vertical dividers (there are plenty of extra ones that come with the cases) to keep them organized in descending widths.

We also built a cabinet to hold all of our spacing cases shown below. This cabinet holds 6 point to 72 point (with 16 point and a second 18 point shown here). Even though it’s just a simple shelving system, it’s makes the individual cases visible and more usable since stacking and unstacking heavy cases to get to the one you want gets old in a hurry.

Now, when we are distributing type back into the cabinets we sort the spacing separately which might take a bit more time, but allows us to be much more accurate in keeping the 4/em and the 5/em and everything else in their correct places.

Since going to this system we have decided to add a second cabinet. We have too much spacing of some sizes to fit into one case. Also we have some less frequently used sizes (16 point) and the didot, which would be good to keep separate.

If anyone is interested I can supply you with the exact dimensions of the various pieces. Should you decide to do something like this, we suggest buying all of the cases you THINK you want for the foreseeable future. Likely as soon as you get started, your source will change the style of cases they sell.

Comments

A recent and mysterious addition to the Lead Graffiti type collection has been identified by some nice sleuthing on the part of several Briar Press TSI  (Type Scene Investigation) agents. Here are my original photos of Pencraft.

Above: Three of the 36-point sorts showing the mortising. The M has both a top and bottom to the mortise. The P and T only have the top or bottom.

Above: a specimen sheet of the 36-point Pencraft mortised initials.

Above: a specimen sheet of the uppercase and lowercase 18-point Pencraft. Interesting that the uppercase is different from the 36 point. I’ll want to compare both uppercase and see if there is any logic. The 36-point initials would likely be used only a few times through a body of text.

Above: a bit of it set up in a composing stick showing the 36-point mortised ‘M’. You have to fill in above and below any of the 18-point type beyond the mortise with 9 points of leading.

Above: Showing the kerning at the top of the sorts.

Above: The MacKellar, Smiths & Jordan pinmark.

Above: Pencraft is displayed on page 56 in the Compact Book of Specimens: MacKellar Smiths & Jordan Company published in Philadelphia in June, 1892.

Pencraft was designed by Herman Ihlenburg (alternately spelled Ihlenberg) for McKS&J and was patented on September 29, 1885. The page lists the mechanical patent as March 31, 1885 (for the machine that casts their sorts?) and registered as number 22,315 (for Pencraft?). The prices listed were

8 A, 32 a, with 4 A initials - $5.25
8 A, 32 a, without initials - $3.50
32 a, lowercase only - $2.05
4 A, initials, separately - $1.75

“Ihlenburg was born in Berlin, Germany in 1843 where he studied art and worked for several German type foundries. He served apprenticeships with Trowitzsch & son and afterwards with Haase in Prague, Flinsch in Frankfurt, and Batten in Paris. He emigrated to the USA in 1866 and worked for the L. Johnson & Co. foundry, later MacKellar, Smiths & Jordan (which became part of American Type Founders). Ihlenburg died July 31, 1905 in Philadelphia.” (Typophile, Klingspor-Museum).

A list from the Klingspor-Museum in Germany lists 89 typefaces Ihlenberg designed for MacKellar, Smiths & Jordan and the American Type Founders between 1868 and 1902.

I notice the Pencraft specimen page from Compact Book of Specimens shows an accented é, but I don’t seem to have any. Anyone else out there have Pencraft?

Following is some of the information contributed on Briar Press.

“The face, I suppose, could antedate the purview of McGrew’s book. It appears that the face was cast on a pivotal caster and hand-dressed, rather than a later Barth-style machine, though I have never operated either,” - DBurnette

“According to Annenberg’s Type Foundries of America and Their Catalogues, MacKellar, Smiths & Jordan only operated from 1867-1892 (and then became part of ATF), so that would explain why this font doesn’t appear in McGrew.” - Gamewell Press

Now I’m excited about both this font and MS&J so I’m going to start doing some of my own digging. Special Collections in the University of Delaware Library seems to have a pretty nice selection of MS&J specimen books.

A nice history of MacKellar, Smiths & Jordon by Luc Devroye.

When I was teaching at the University of Delaware Bill Deering and I talked with Ned Heite of Camden, Delaware about his type collection. Ned seemed interested in donating it to Raven Press at the University of Delaware, but there were too many strings attached for us to be able to accommodate his wishes.

Ned passed away on April 17, 2007 at the age of 66. His type collection was willed to a family member. They contacted Bill who contacted Ray who bought the collection you see below.

The collection consisted of 230 cases of type spread over 14 cabinets and another 101 galleys of various type, spacing and leading. It will be fun to go through it and see what ends up being there.

When we first started talking with Ned about acquiring the collection one of the typefaces that most intrigued us was one put out by American Type Founders called ‘Satanick.’ ATF had approached printer William Morris of the Kelmscott Press in London, England, and the designer of the typeface, Troy, to see about producing it for commercial purposes. Supposedly, William Morris told them to “Go to Hell.” So, they did it anyway and apparently in a moment of whimsey named the typeface ‘Satanick.’

Sometime soon we will get around to putting a photo of it with this post.

Lead Graffiti is proud to announce the addition of a nice run (20 cases) of foundry Melior from 12 point to 60 point. The font was designed by Hermann Zapf in 1952. I was especially knocked over by that ‘y’.
Here is a sample.

On eBay we just bought this typography for what we believe is printing on textiles. We thought it would make a wonderful addition to our collection of typography.

The wood blocks are 2.75″ tall. The metal which is quite thin and is simply driven into the wood. It has kind of the same feel as on old printing cylinder for printing wallpaper which is often is metal outline driven into wood and then filled in with some kind of mortar.

We aren’t exactly sure how they work as they are not even close to the same type height to each other.

A very nice font of wood type we just got off eBay. The type is 5″ high and contains both the uppercase and the lowercase characters in a dusty but very well preserved surface. Overall it covers a 30″ x 40″ area. Should be fun to print.

We are starting to get excited by Goudy. I wasn’t particularly fond of it as a designer, but as a letterpress printer it has a lot of appeal. Some letterforms are really quite nicely designed. Anyway, we got this one today.