Kelsey square type cases
I recently picked up a collection of small type cases. The person said they got them with their Kelsey, and looking into a ~1950 Kelsey catalog (see image attached), it seems like these were indeed supplied by Kelsey. Or, at least cases of this style were. The catalog refers to them as “square cases.” They are 12.5 inches square with 48 equally sized subdivisions (6 x 8).
My question is whether these cases had any standard type lays. Based on the labels stuck to the cases I got, it seems like upper and lower case sorts went in the same wells. And then just a free-for-all for numerals and other sorts. I’m trying to work out a way to sensibly get a whole font (12 pt or smaller) into these.
Also, did Kelsey ever make cabinets for these square cases? I think I’ll probably end up using these more for ornaments, but I want to build a cabinet and want to at least see what an original would have looked like.
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Virtually all case lays are 7 across. If you learn something like 6 across or 8 across, you will be learning a non-standard lay which will not serve you well if you want to add cases later (which will most likely be 7 across). If you Google “Alembic Press Typecase Lay Section” and then scroll down to “Jobbing Half Upper Case,” you will see a 7 X 6 layout you could use if you made some modifications to the botttom row of your cases, and didn’t use your 8th (right most) vertical row.. That’s what I would suggest.
One way to use the 48-compartment cases would be just for small fonts of small-to-medium size types, by cutting thin slats of wood or stiff cardboard to be a snug fit diagonally in each compartment and distribute the type alphabetically with lower-case and caps of each letter sharing a box. The other 22 compartments can be for special characters, numerals, and punctuation.