Today's adventure after the event at Trafalgar Square: Convent Garden antique shopping!
I bought some very nice
type case, antique keys and metal/wooden types. I was so excited to find these stuffs and spent 90p! The type case I got is actually from one of the press in
Fleet Street, which is a famous street in London named after River Fleet, it was traditionally the home of the British press up until 1980s, even though the last major British news office Reuters left in 2005.
Daniel Fenton runs
The Old Printing Shop of London. He served a 6-year apprenticeship as a compositor/printer handsetting wood and metal type. Working since then with his wife and two sons, he has been collecting printing equipment from all over Great Britain, including wooden and metal type, illustrative blocks, printing presses and many other items. He is a very nice guy, come to the Convent Garden Market every Monday to setup the booth.
Ever wonder why the capital letters are called upper cases? Coz printers used to store capital letter types at the top of their type cases and small letters at the bottom, that's where the term came from. Check out
the wiki about this.
It is getting more and more difficult to find these wooden and metal types. I'm so happy I can find such a large supply and Daniel seems to have more of these other than what he can show in the booth.
I not only got some nice wooden types but also logos like the British emblem, FBI, the Bookseller's Association, The Stationer's Association, etc etc..... a tremendous reward on just the first day of this visit!
