Movable Metal Letters are just amazing. [Especially for type lovers like me ;)]
I have recently bought Arabic and Latin movable metal type. They were for an old Arabic printing press in the Shouf area in Mount Lebanon. The owner of the movable letters wanted to sale them as trash, and I was lucky to find out about them and save the valuable metal letters from being melted done or simply trashed.
9 Arabic fonts and 6 Latin fonts was what I got. Along with one Composing Stick.
What is amazing is that the Arabic mattress is twice as big as the Latin one.
For the Arabic, I got one Arabic Naskh typeface in 8pt, 12pt, 24pt Regular and Bold.
For the Latin I have Helvetica Italic in 48 pts, one Serif type named Romine and one Sans Serif type named Europe. Each of Romine and Europe are in 12 pt and 18pt.
I made a wooden closet for the Latin mattresses based on the traditional closet shape for the drawers… As for the Arabic mattresses, I am still thinking what is the best way to store or display them. I am thinking of a metallic shelves system to put the Arabic huge mattresses in since the wood will not be strong enough the hold them.
I am now in the process of cleaning them from dust, so this is taking me hell of a time. Whenever I have some time off or need to take a brake from work, I clean some letters.
My next step is to find and buy the traditional printing press, but this will take more time for me to put aside the price amount of it…
Then maybe open a small press for educational use where students can come and typeset type. And for sure I can use I to make some prints with it…
I would also like to know the names of the Arabic fonts and know their origins. When and where they were casted? Where were they before they got to the Shouf press?…
