New Norcia Combined Upper and Lower Case

This Australian typecase lay is that of a case held by the Abbey Press at New Norcia in Western Australia, still currently (2013) in use in the Monastery complex, although the Press itself is no longer active there. The typecase is partitioned into four bays, with one of the "upper" bays for normal caps (36pt Era), and in this instance, the other for a smaller size of a different face (17pt Outline Shaded). Note the position of y, which is unlike most other lays. Also, the founts are short of various characters, so some boxes remain empty. Contrast this with the Improved Job U.S.lay.

The empty case is Combined Upper and Lower and almost matches the Complete Roman Case of Stephenson, Blake & Co.: Printing Material & Machinery (1922) and Caslon: Printing Types and Materials (1925) and Cefmor: Printers Equipment & Sundries (1955), and the Improved Job of Barnhart Bros & Spindler: Pony Specimen (1890s), American Type Founders: Line Type Book (1906), etc. except that those cases follow the U.S. pattern of a divided box above the i box, whereas New Norcia's case has a single box, in the English tradition. Stephenson Blake, etc. follow the U.S. pattern, although it may simply be that they have used the U.S. version for illustrative purposes. The actual case size is 32½x14⅛ ins.