The London Type Museum and its mysteries
Mar 5, 2013 8:25:39 GMT -5
Post by Deleted on Mar 5, 2013 8:25:39 GMT -5
On the twenty-ninth of April 1994, a number of people - some sporting very curious names - wrote in to the following effect:
Sir, — In the next two months Britain has its last chance to establish the Type Museum — an unique working museum in London devoted to one of man's greatest inventions, printing with movable type.
The Merrion Monotype Trust is dedicated to maintaining British eminence in the arts and crafts of type founding and printing. In association with the National Heritage Memorial Fund and the Science Museum, an irreplaceable wealth of letter-patterns and precision machines has already been rescued for the nation. These — some eight million artefacts — represent the hot-metal business of Monotype, an invention as far-reaching as Gutenberg's in importance. The Monotype process, patented in 1897, perfected the art of automatic typesetting and produced typefaces for virtually every known alphabet and script; printers world-wide came to Monotype for their supplies. The elegance of Monotype design and technology made possible the unsurpassed quality of twentieth-century print.
A London site for the museum has been found, the purchase of which has to be completed within two months, where the public will be able to see type being created, and a new generation of students and researchers will learn the refinement of skills still needed in the complex world of electronic communication. With public support it can also become the home of a remarkable collection, now on the market, of British hand-letter foundries stretching back to the sixteenth century.
We recognize the urgent need for the Type Museum in London, complementing the major printing museums in Europe and the United North American States. To lose such a fundamental British resource would be a national deprivation. We support and commend the work of the Merrion Monotype Trust towards this end, and we urge your readers to give it financial support and encouragement, while there is still time.
NEIL COSSONS, MIRJAM FOOT, PIERS RODGERS, ELIZABETH ESTEVE-COLL, ALAN BELL, ANTHONY JONES, JOHN SORRELL, JOHN HENDRY AND PAUL THOMPSON, MAX HEBDITCH, JOHN FAIRCLOUGH, ALAN BORG, JOHN MARTIN ROBINSON, GILES WATERFIELD, JAMES ARNOLD-BAKER, ELIZABETH HARRIS, JEAN FAVIER, EVA HARIEBUTT-BENT, FRANCINE DE NAVE
c/o The Science Museum, Exhibition Road, London SW7.
Well! After reading that the first thing one does is look for "London Type Museum" on the Inter-Net; and sure enough, there it is:
www.typemuseum.org
so evidently the urgent appeal succeeded!
But wait - we find a description of many trials and uncertainties, most of them having to do with "money" - hardly part of the concept "museum." These can be put down to the regrettable necessities and constraints of capitalism. Museums under communism, where things are done properly, are much more fortunate are they not.
And the really curious phrase is "established in 1992," which does not quite conform with the "last chance to establish the Type Museum" we read above. And under the heading "Visit us" we read "We regret that there is currently no public access to the Museum."
I suppose that what all those people with strange names were really after was not so much an establishment but a move - a move to the "veterinary hospital" - which they do in fact appear to have managed to obtain.
Sir, — In the next two months Britain has its last chance to establish the Type Museum — an unique working museum in London devoted to one of man's greatest inventions, printing with movable type.
The Merrion Monotype Trust is dedicated to maintaining British eminence in the arts and crafts of type founding and printing. In association with the National Heritage Memorial Fund and the Science Museum, an irreplaceable wealth of letter-patterns and precision machines has already been rescued for the nation. These — some eight million artefacts — represent the hot-metal business of Monotype, an invention as far-reaching as Gutenberg's in importance. The Monotype process, patented in 1897, perfected the art of automatic typesetting and produced typefaces for virtually every known alphabet and script; printers world-wide came to Monotype for their supplies. The elegance of Monotype design and technology made possible the unsurpassed quality of twentieth-century print.
A London site for the museum has been found, the purchase of which has to be completed within two months, where the public will be able to see type being created, and a new generation of students and researchers will learn the refinement of skills still needed in the complex world of electronic communication. With public support it can also become the home of a remarkable collection, now on the market, of British hand-letter foundries stretching back to the sixteenth century.
We recognize the urgent need for the Type Museum in London, complementing the major printing museums in Europe and the United North American States. To lose such a fundamental British resource would be a national deprivation. We support and commend the work of the Merrion Monotype Trust towards this end, and we urge your readers to give it financial support and encouragement, while there is still time.
NEIL COSSONS, MIRJAM FOOT, PIERS RODGERS, ELIZABETH ESTEVE-COLL, ALAN BELL, ANTHONY JONES, JOHN SORRELL, JOHN HENDRY AND PAUL THOMPSON, MAX HEBDITCH, JOHN FAIRCLOUGH, ALAN BORG, JOHN MARTIN ROBINSON, GILES WATERFIELD, JAMES ARNOLD-BAKER, ELIZABETH HARRIS, JEAN FAVIER, EVA HARIEBUTT-BENT, FRANCINE DE NAVE
c/o The Science Museum, Exhibition Road, London SW7.
Well! After reading that the first thing one does is look for "London Type Museum" on the Inter-Net; and sure enough, there it is:
www.typemuseum.org
so evidently the urgent appeal succeeded!
But wait - we find a description of many trials and uncertainties, most of them having to do with "money" - hardly part of the concept "museum." These can be put down to the regrettable necessities and constraints of capitalism. Museums under communism, where things are done properly, are much more fortunate are they not.
And the really curious phrase is "established in 1992," which does not quite conform with the "last chance to establish the Type Museum" we read above. And under the heading "Visit us" we read "We regret that there is currently no public access to the Museum."
I suppose that what all those people with strange names were really after was not so much an establishment but a move - a move to the "veterinary hospital" - which they do in fact appear to have managed to obtain.
