Empty Two Third Dearing Job Case

(Empty California Two Third Case)

                                    
               
       
 
 
              
 
 
      
       
 
 
      
       
 
 
      

This U.S. case is shown in Palmer & Rey's New Specimen Book of 1884, as illustrated in Pryor: History of the California Job Type Case, in Journal of the Printing Historical Society No.7 (1972). Pryor also shows a photograph of this as a Hamilton case, dated 1890-95, and a layout of the case from Hamilton Manufacturing Co, Catalog (1897). The case is shown in Palmer & Rey's Specimen Book of 1892, and described there as the best two third Job made, and the most popular in the country, able to hold 99% of the founts sold. At that time, the case was often called a Two-Third California, but it is more correctly a Dearing case. Indeed, although Pryor calls this a Two-Third California, he goes on to say it (in 1884) is the earliest illustration of a Dearing Job case. Pryor notes that Dearing, who was the salesman for Read (the agents for Miller & Richard), conceived the Two-Thirds Job Case around 1876. The Two-Third Dearing Case is also shown by American Type Founders, American Line Type Book (1906), Barnhardt Bros & Spindler, Book of Type Specimens No.9 (1907), and Hamilton Manufacturing Company, Modern Cabinets, Furniture and Materials for Printers, Catalog 14 (c.1907) who also showing a Two Third California or Italic case as a very different case. The Two Third Dearing is also shown in Hamilton Manufacturing Company, Modern Printing Office Furniture Catalog 15 (1922) and Printing Plant Equipment, Type Storage Section Catalog 16 (c.1932), and Thompson Cabinet Co, Thompson Equipment for Printing Plants Catalog 47 (c.1949). It is exactly the same as the full-size case, apart from being 21 3/4 x 16 5/8 ins rather than 32 3/16 x 16 5/8 ins. The type lay is Dearing Two Third.

Hamilton stated that the case had the largest capacity of any two-third case. The left hand (lower case) bay is wider than the right (caps) bay. Note the pattern of the capitals bay, ie 1 short row and four tall rows - known as the California pattern (c.f. Hamilton Manufacturing). Some alternative case patterns are Two Third California and Two Third Italic, etc., which are all slightly different.

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This page was written in 2001 by David Bolton and last updated 16 January 2016.