Hot metal is still hot-M & H Type Foundry & Letterpress Tour

The venerable firm of Mackenzie & Harris, established in 1915, is the oldest and largest type foundry for letterpress printers in the United States. Also known as M & H Type, it offers traditional lead typecasting and Monotype composition as well as hot metal fonts. This tour, part of an A&E Open Book show, takes viewers through the foundry and into the pressroom of Arion Press where the type is impressed into paper. The tour features an interview with Lewis Mitchell, who has been casting type at M & H for over 50 years.

This is part two of the show; the first part can be viewed at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nc64ycPmSqo

For more information about M & H Type see:
http://www.arionpress.com/mandh/index.htm

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• letterpress
• Bible
• NRSV
• Gutenberg
• printing
• foundry
• Monotype
• San
• Francisco
• typography

[cosmoglassworks]

Great video. My family has been in the printing business since the 50's. I grew up around lead type, and we still have the Ludlow my father used to run. While I do all my work in Quark or InDesign now, I'd love to still be able to to print on a letterpress.

[BOPPPPER]

If you want to see more of this subject, have a look at my website about hot metal printing in Edinburgh which is the website of 'The Adventures of the Gutenberg Boys'. Just Google The Gutenberg Boys.

[zacha83]

I love how at 3:40 she makes it sound like hot lead is cutting edge (and it's justhand composing that's hopelessly outdated)

[treborif]

when i was an apprentice i set a 4 letter word on the ludlow and 4 lettered it up, got a big splash which squirted upwards and joined the other hunks of burnt lead on the ceiling - ive still got that 4 letter slug.

[iPoderification]

I would like to that work, - regrettably I scrapped 5 privately owned Monotype Casting machines and all their ancillary components.

[wyaldrapress]

Great video, I have only seen one mono going and that was at the school of Graphic Arts in Sydney in the 1950's.

Have used mono that came from a trade house but mostly used Lino. Arthur in OZ

[fremlinskent]

I do like letterpress. When I was 14 (26 years ago), I had an Adana 5x3, then I was really lucky and managed to get a Cropper Charlton. There is something special about letterpress when compared with offset litho, the type, composing and so on.

[keithwbt]

Superb video. Did my 6 year apprenticeship on the monotype caster in the 60's in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, England.