Triple, Four Fount, Six Fount, etc. Cases

Most of these cases are distinguished by having three, four, five or six identical sections (bays), when intended for upper case founts. Some are split into three bays, but not of identical boxes. A few are also included having more than three bays, but intended for single founts of upper and lower combined. The dates shown are either when published or when viewed, and therefore are not necessarily the earliest appearance of the case. The various cases are listed below, separated by the number of bays. A link takes you to a descriptive page that shows the actual box layout, the various sources that illustrate the case, and usually a link to the appropriate layout of the type in the case.

Note that "Double" and "Job" cases are listed separately, although they too have three bays.

The number of rows in a case is shown below as follows:
7   there are 7 rows
4+4there are 4 rows, then a horizontal partition, then 4 more rows
3:3:1there are 7 rows, but the top 3 and bottom 1 are smaller than the middle 3
(7or8)there are basically 7 rows, but one row has some boxes subdivided horizontally, thus making the row total 8
The number of boxes per row is shown as follows
7+7+77 boxes then a vertical partition then 7 boxes then a vertical partition then 7 boxes
(7or10or13)there are basically 7 boxes in a row, but some rows have some boxes subdivided vertically, thus making 10 or 13 boxes

Three bays in the caseRowsBoxes per rowTotal boxes
Triple Case (Harpel 1870, same as M&R Treble) 77+7+7147
Treble Case (M&R 1873, same as Harpel Triple) 77+7+7147
Shanks' Music Upper Case (Southward 1882) 78+7+8161
Shanks' Music Lower Case (Southward 1882) 78+7+8134
Oakley's patent Lower Case (1893)76+3+654
Gem Music Lower Case (Southward 1898) 77+7+7105
Improved Space case (Ullmer 1902) 5(4or8)+(2or4)+(2or4)48
Triple Case (Hamilton 1922) 3:3:17+7+7147
Nagari Improved Upper Case (Gujarati Type Foundry 1928) 88+8+8192
 
Four bays in the case 
Stanhope Upper Case (Johnson 1824)§ 4+37+(7or6)95
§This case is designed for one fount, not four
Four Fount Case (M&R 1873) 4+47+7112
Quadruple Case (Southward 1882) 77+7+7+7196
Scotch Upper Case (Chambers 1891)§ 74+3+3+498
§This case is designed for one fount, not four
Improved Job Case (Palmer & Rey 1892)§§77+8+7+798
§§This case is a full upper and lower case combined
Double Lower Case (ATF 1893)† 77+8+7+8108
†Although this case has four bays, with three vertical bars, it is two lower cases combined, and has four different sizes of boxes.
Improved Four Fount No.4 case (Ullmer 1902)* 127+7168
*Ullmer's illustration of the above case shows 12 rows, but the text implies 6+6 rows
Double Yankee Job Case (ATF 1906)‡‡98+8+8+8172
‡‡This is a job case for two complete founts of type
Complete Roman Case (SB&Co 1922)§§ 77+8+7+7152
§§This case is a full upper and lower case combined
Quadruple Case (Hamilton 1932) 3:3:17+7+7+7196
Belgian Quadruple Case (Antwerp 2006) 7+7(7or10or13)+(7or10or13)264
Dutch Four Fount Case (Avalon Pers 1997) 6+67+7168
Devanagari Upper Case (Sind 1999) 105+5+5+5200
Devanagari Lower Case (Sind 1999)‡ 95+5+5+5139
‡Being for lower case characters, there are three different sizes of boxes
Unidentified U.S. Job Case (Halbert 1999)1:46+3+7+790
Combined Upper and Lower Case (New Norcia 2013)§§ 77+7+7+7151
§§This case is a full upper and lower case combined
 
Five bays in the case 
Dearing Accent Case (Palmer & Rey 1892) 75+5+5+5+5175
 
Six bays in the case 
Six Fount Case (M&R 1873) 4+47+7+7168
Improved Double No.2 case (Ullmer 1902)** 897+7 upper
5+6+5+6 lower
89
**This case is designed as two double cases, to hold two complete founts of upper and lower case.
Dutch Ornament Case (Avalon Pers 1997)†† 4+47+7+7150
††This case is effectively a Sextuple case, but has four different sizes of boxes, and would be of no use for founts of capitals.


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ie with the boxes left blank
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This page was written in 2014 by David Bolton and last updated 18 January 2015