Talbot's Improved Double Case

This English layout was provided by J.Stafford Baker from a case obtained from the Talbot Press, Essex, in the late 1960s. The case was marked out with the characters labelled in the boxes, but in actuality the £ and & were in the bottom row of the upper case bay, next to the long s, and the long s box (represented here by |) and the next two were marked as for ligatures. The ff ligature seems to have got omitted (it probably went where the long s has been put) and also missing is the ?, however there are boxes for the two additional ct and st ligatures. Note also that J and U are in alphabetic sequence, rather than in boxes after Z. The position of the numerals follows eg London School of Printing of 1930s, or Aspinall of 1936, or Sheffield of 1963, but the ligatures, signs, points, etc. are in different places. Unusually, the position of w and , is the reverse of other English Double Case lays. The positions of q x z are the same as Sheffield.

The empty configuration is Talbot, which is a version of the Improved Double shown by Southward, except that his upper case bay has one less row of boxes, the bottom row being full size, rather than split into two smaller rows as here. The more modern Improved Double Case of Stephenson, Blake & Co. (1922) has six rows, as here, but differs in having two small rows at the top, then four large rows, rather than the one small row and three large rows and two small rows as here.