Empty Half (Upper) Case

This English typecase construction is shown by Miller & Richard in Specimens of Book Newspaper Jobbing and Ornamental Types 1873 and still in 1927. It is shown by Southward: Practical Printing (1882 and 3rd ed 1887 and 5th ed 1900) as a case for capitals or fancy letters, with figures and points, and in his Modern Printing (1904), as a case for small founts. It is about half the width of an ordinary Upper case. It is also the Half Upper Case shown by Ullmer: Revised Illustrated Price List of New Machinery and Materials (1902) and the Half Case shown by H.W.Caslon & Co: Printing Types and Catalogue of Materials (1925), being useful for small founts of caps, figures and points. This size of case was the same size as Caslon's 162/3 x 141/2 inch letter boards, and could be fitted into their Job Frame, which held 17 full size and 14 half size cases or boards (plus a drawer). The U.S. version is shown by Hamilton Manufacturing Company in Modern Cabinets, Furniture and Materials for Printers Catalog 14 of c. 1907, and stated to be half the size of a regular Cap case, and much used by bookbinders.

The configuration is effectively half a normal upper case, i.e. has 49 boxes, and a suitable lay is Half Cap Case. In 1882, Southward also showed McCorquodale's Half Upper Case, and Caslon also provided an Improved version, which has three rows larger than the others, and some extra small boxes. Ullmer provided a Lower Case version, but unfortunately did not illustrate it.

Other empty cases ie with the boxes left blank		Other type layouts ie with characters assigned to boxes
Full Index of layouts	Glossary of terms used	Sources of the layouts	Introduction
Quantities in a fount of type		Quantities in a case of type
Notes about Job and Double Cases	Notes about Upper cases	Notes about Lower cases	Alembic home page

This page was written in 2001 by David Bolton and last updated 8 May 2022.