Rollin Milroy
Metal Type, 2013
Vancouver: Heavenly Monkey
One of thirty-five copies.
1488
Further images
Small quarto. (26), (9)ff. This work celebrates the many varieties of metal type 'purchased for, adopted by, & abandoned at Heavenly Monkey during the studio's first fifteen years' and is...
Small quarto. (26), (9)ff. This work celebrates the many varieties of metal type "purchased for, adopted by, & abandoned at Heavenly Monkey during the studio's first fifteen years" and is printed on a selection of nine different papers collected during the same period. The featured types range from elegant Garamond and Eric Gill's classic Perpetua to the narrow, futuristic Huxley Vertical and calligraphic Reiner Script. In the Introduction, press proprietor Rollin Milroy notes that many of the types are printed here for the first time since they arrived at the studio. Instead of simply printing the alphabet in each font, each page was intuitively improvised around a general design idea at the time of printing. The book includes quotations related to some of the fonts, and one sample is a leaf originally printed in 1960 from Kuthan's Menagerie, with a marginal gloss added in red by Milroy. Most pages were printed in at least two colors, some metallic, requiring multiple passes through the printing press. A fine copy, bound after the regular edition in patterned paper boards and printed dust wrapper. A remarkable and creative specimen book.