The Dale Guild - What type to cast?
I’ve been working to add a list of type sizes and styles to our website and I wondered if some of the Briar Press users might be interested in giving feedback on faces they would like to see cast.
I should mention that casting sizes above 24 point requires the use of 19th century equipment that makes it much more time consuming and costly so sizes 24 pt and below are more appealing.
Give us some feedback- I want to know what people are interested in!
And if you don’t know what these faces look like I highly recommend the Mac McGrew book. We’ll get specimen images online eventually, but it is going to take a lot of work!
More faces will be added, but you can see what we’ve got posted to date here:
http://thedaleguild.com/catalog/sort_orders/
If we can identify a substantial interest in a particular face we’ll cast it!
Daniel Morris
The Dale Guild Type Foundry
Howell, NJ & Brooklyn, NY
I would like to see some of the classic faces, such as Caslon, Cloister, Garamond, etc., available in regular, bold, and italic castings. Perhaps that would enable castings that could be purchased off the shelf?
I would purchase fonts of Caslon 471 roman, italic and swash in 10-24 pt. It’s always puzzled me why you wouldn’t keep this face on the shelf—it’s still a go-to for many typographers and designers. I would love to have it in metal.
I’m partial to Lydian in smaller sizes as well. Not sure how other people feel about that, though…
I’d like to know if any mats for the Lydian old style figures still exist. Shown in the early ’40s but not later.
Any chance for Bernhard Gothic?
I’d take a job case each of cloister lightface in 14, 18, and 24. and I’d like to get Bulmer in 12, 18, and 24.
Hello,
I’ll try to answer all these together. Please let me know if anything is unclear!
The Caslon 471 is a very nice face. I expect we will cast some of it again in the not-too-distant future, but each size is run on a different machine. We probably won’t be able to cast a range of sizes without orders for them- it’s just too much time to tie up; orders for casting must take precedence. This said, even if you can’t meet the minimum order requirements it is good if you can make sure we know if you are interested in a particular size so we can let you know if we are running it.
We did have Garamond available until recently in our eBay store in 24 pt, but it has just sold out. I think we will soon be running another size of it for a customer. I will try to make sure it results in some fonts for sale.
We have fonts of the Cloister Lightface Titling in 24 pt. on the shelf for sale right now. We cast the 12 pt size last year.
Matrices to cast Lydian in sizes 24 point and larger are all that remain. I am not sure if these include the OS figures, but I can check if those sizes are what you are interested in. Be aware that anything above 24 pt must be cast on a pivotal caster. This is very time consuming and expensive.
Bernhard Gothic mats are no longer in existence. I believe they went to the scrap men at the ATF liquidation auction in 1993- this is a terrible shame.
The Cloister Lightface and Bulmer exist in all the sizes you mention, Alan. We would be happy to speak to you about casting them.
Thanks to all of you for your input.
Dan