In-House Typecasting

This is an impossible topic, and indeed I'm not sure that it constitutes a sensible are of study at all.

At the turn of the 20th century, various manufacturers of typecasting machinery (most importantly Lanston Monotype, but also Thompson, Nuernberger-Rettig/Universal, etc.) introduced the notion that ever printer might be their own typefounder. This means of course, that throughout the 20th century there were innumerable firms, organizations, and sometimes private individuals casting their own type for in-house use; not just printing firms, but often companies large enough to have in-house printing departments. A few of these thought of themselves as "private typefoundries" (often as the in-house typefounding wing of a private press). Most, however, were simply organizations which cast their own type.

The reason that this group of typecasters is important is that they often owned their own matrices. Moreover, there was a perhaps surprising degree of cooperation between them (even between nominally competitive firms of advertising typographers) in the lending and exchange of matrices. Matrices are the heart of typecasting, and the surviving matrices from the 20th century are what enables typecasting to continue into the 21st century. It is interesting, if not necessarily useful, to note these firms - if only because their names often appear on the surviving matrix boxes and it's nice to know where things came from.

So this section will include any information I happen to run across about those who cast their own type for in-house use (except "private typefoundries" and individuals important in the history of 20th/21st century typecasting; these are identified in ../ [Noncomposing Typecaster] Foundry Specimens & Typography.) Need I even state the obvious? This present section will never even come close to being comprehensive.

Note that the nature of the survival of information will necessarily distort the material here. In some cases a relatively unusual machine has been well researched and almost all of its users documented (e.g., the Wicks Rotary Typecaster). So there may be half a dozen entries for such a machine, while the identities of many hundreds of Monotype shops will never be known.

The order here will be alphabetical, as chronological information is usually lacking.

[UK] Balding & Mansell

Wallis (p. 35) reports them as a using the Davis Typecaster of Grant, Legros & Co.. {Wallis, L. W. "Legros and Grant: The Typographical Connection." Journal of the Printing Historical Society. No. 28 (1999): 5-39}

[UK] Bradbury Agnew & Co.

"The producers of Punch magazine." Wicks rotary typecaster, early 20th century. {Wallis, L. W. "Legros and Grant: The Typographical Connection." Journal of the Printing Historical Society. No. 28 (1999): 17}

[UK] The British Printer

Wicks rotary typecaster, early 20th century (installed 1902). {Wallis, L. W. "Legros and Grant: The Typographical Connection." Journal of the Printing Historical Society. No. 28 (1999): 17}

[UK] Clay & Sons Ltd.

Wicks rotary typecaster, early 20th century. {Wallis, L. W. "Legros and Grant: The Typographical Connection." Journal of the Printing Historical Society. No. 28 (1999): 17}

[UK] T. & A. Constable

"Owners of the University Press in Edinburgh." Wicks rotary typecaster, early 20th century. {Wallis, L. W. "Legros and Grant: The Typographical Connection." Journal of the Printing Historical Society. No. 28 (1999): 17}

[UK] Daily Chronicle

Newspaper. Wallis (p. 35) reports them as a using the Davis Typecaster of Grant, Legros & Co.. {Wallis, L. W. "Legros and Grant: The Typographical Connection." Journal of the Printing Historical Society. No. 28 (1999): 5-39}

[UK] Daily News and Leader

[UK] Daily Telegraph

[UK] Eyre & Spottiswoode Ltd.

Printers. Wallis (p. 35) reports them as a using the Davis Typecaster of Grant, Legros & Co.. {Wallis, L. W. "Legros and Grant: The Typographical Connection." Journal of the Printing Historical Society. No. 28 (1999): 5-39}

[UK] Guest, Keen & Nettlefold

Nettlefold division. Makers of screws, bolts, etc. See David Bolton. "Showing of Monotype Matrices Expanded; Proprietary English Mats Revealed." ATF Newsletter. No. 33 (October, 2009): 31. Bolton illustrates display mats that they used which were made by Stephen Austin & Sons.

[UK] Harrison & Sons

Wicks rotary typecaster, early 20th century. {Wallis, L. W. "Legros and Grant: The Typographical Connection." Journal of the Printing Historical Society. No. 28 (1999): 17}

[UK] Kenrick & Jefferson Ltd.

[UK] Liverpool Post

[UK] Manchester Guardian

[UK] Novello & Co. Ltd.

[UK] Reynolds News

[UK] Roberts & Newton

Printers. Wallis (p. 33) reports a 1916 court case in which Stephenson, Blake sued Grant, Legros & Co. for copyright infringement in supplying matrices (presumaly for their Davis Typecaster) to Roberts & Newton. {Wallis, L. W. "Legros and Grant: The Typographical Connection." Journal of the Printing Historical Society. No. 28 (1999): 5-39}

Supreme Ad Service

I've seen one box of Monotype display matrices (30 point Lanston Monotype series 61, which is Cochin Old Style) with a label on it which reads "Supreme Ad Service[,] 228 W. 28th St. [no city]"

[UK] The Times (London)

From 1878 to 1908 they employed Kastenbein typesetting machines; in the early 1900s (at least) these were supplied with types at least in part by in-house Wicks rotary typecasters. In 1908 these were replaced by Monotype equipment. See {Wallis, L. W. "Legros and Grant: The Typographical Connection." Journal of the Printing Historical Society. No. 28 (1999): 17} who in turn cites {Moran, James. The Composition of Reading Matter (London: Wace & Co. Ltd., 1965)}

[UK] Unwin Bros. Ltd.

Publishers. Wallis (p. 35) reports them as a using the Davis Typecaster of Grant, Legros & Co.. {Wallis, L. W. "Legros and Grant: The Typographical Connection." Journal of the Printing Historical Society. No. 28 (1999): 5-39}

[UK] Wyman & Sons Ltd.