Empty Ordinary Double Case

 
                                                    
                 
          
                   
        
                 
          

This English typecase configuration is shown by Southward: Practical Printing (1882 but not later editions) and Modern Printing (1898 but not later editions) and Harrild: Illustrated Catalogue of Printing Lithographic & Binding Machinery & Materials (1889) and Miller & Richard: Specimens of Book Newspaper Jobbing and Ornamental Types (1894) and Catalogue and Price List of Printing Materials (1897) and Caslon: Specimen Of Printing Types (1897), and Ullmer: Revised Illustrated Price List of New Machinery and Materials (1902). It also matches the Double Case (Ordinary Lay) of Stephenson, Blake & Co: Printing Material & Machinery (1922) and the Ordinary Double Case of Miller & Richard: Printing Machinery & Material (c.1910) and Specimens of Modern, Old Style and Ornamental Type cast on Point Bodies (1912) and Printing Type Specimens (1927), and the old Standard Double Case of Caslon: Printing Types & Materials (1925). It is shown by Jacobi: Printing (6th ed 1919), Atkins: The Art and Practice of Printing (1932), Cummins: Printer's Guide (1952), Wallis: A Short History of the English Case Lay in Print in Britain Nov 1959, Lindley & Maggs: Basic Printing - Letterpress for the Beginner (1970 and 1983), Sind National Type Foundry: Book of Type Faces (current in 1999) and was still in use at the Alembic Press in 2013. It has 53 lower case boxes and 49 upper case boxes.

Note that this style of case differs from the earlier Double case of Miller & Richard (1873) which has one extra lower case box, and from the later Improved Double Case (e.g. Caslon 1897) which has only six upper case rows. It also differs from the Scottish Double Case which has a different arrangement of lower case boxes, and the U.S Italic (Job) case, which has 54 lower case boxes (i.e. divides the box above the i box). Southward, from 1887 to 1892, shows another Double version which has only 50 lower case boxes, which may be a mistake by the illustrator.

Possible type lays are the London School of Printing shown by Atkins, the Duplicate Job shown by Sind, and the BPS Double shown by Lindley.

Other empty cases
ie with the boxes left blank
Other type layouts
ie with characters assigned to boxes
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This page was written in 1997 by David Bolton and last updated 1 July 2015.