Spent the past week playing with a cabinet of type that arrived last week, after a 50-year trek that took it from Vancouver to Montreal, then to the Northwest Territories, and finally back to Vancouver.
The cabinet, and some of the type in it (like Rubens, in several sizes), originated in Robert Reid's print shop in the 1950s.
Ib Kristensen moved it, along with a bunch of other stuff, to McGill in the '60s, when he joined Bob there. During their tenures with the Redpath Press, Bob added a large collection of foundry types from Czechoslovakia. Not entirely by coincidence, we also have a Bob's copy of the catalogue (cover shown at top) of contemporary Czech types prepared by René Murat for the 1968 Atypi meeting in Prague, which is dominated by the designs of Oldrich Menhart. In our newly acquired trays are:
Monument
Unciala
and President
all in various sizes (including some useful titling sizes).
The arrival of this new type prompted us to finally dis' some old type that had been standing for ages, plus unwrap several titling sizes that haven't been used yet. Playing with all this metal also reinforced all that was said in the recent Types/Paper/Print about our preference for polymer when it comes to book work, but it also sparked the idea for a companion to T/P/P, showing all the metal faces held at HM, and combining our affinity for shaped settings with a collection of new poems by Harold Budd. Lots of colors this time, and different papers. A small edition, to keep it fun; probably just 26 press-lettered (A - Z) copies. Details to be shared as they are realized.
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