Lyons Collection 2, Conway Photosetting [Specimen Book]

Publisher: Visual Graphics Corporation, USA
Publication: Circa 1968, First Edition
Binding: Softcover, saddle-stitch
Pages: 24
Size: 250 x 230
Text: English

Click here to find more type specimens, or take a browse through the Typography section to discover more general reference books, journals, monographs, etc!

Cover designed and produced by Conway Photosetting bound over an existing booklet obtained from Visual Graphics Corporation USA, originally intended for themselves only to promote sales of their photo typositor display photosetting machine.

Twenty selected typefaces from the distinguished T. J. Lyons Antique Type Collection, which are reproduced on film for use on the Photo Typositor Volume II.

(Introduction) 'T.J. Lyons. Boston. 1924 A small Golding press, a few cabinets of modern type, and The Print Shop on the Avenue -The T. J. Lyons Press— was in business. Local advertising agencies had plenty of work for T. J. One of his pieces was judged best in a style composition contest against entries from other printers in Boston, New York and Philadelphia.

Then came the depression. Print shops everywhere trying to survive somehow. And T.). got the idea of going old-fash-ioned. The beginning of the collection. Shops that still had old-fashioned type were glad to sell it or swap it.

"Each haul has its own little story," says T.J. "Seven trips to Halifax, Nova Scotia, were necessary to separate one large printer from his real old material."

He found a cache of old type under five tons of coal in a cellar in Watertown, New York, on a snowy evening in 1935. He dug it out. Clutching two hundred pounds of type to his chest, he slid down a hill, stepped into the side of a house at the bottom, and broke through the wooden cover of an underground garbage container. "I did manage to hold on to the type but to this day I have twinges in my knees from that drop. After all that, I figured the type must have deserved the rescue from oblivion. I've used it successfully innumerable times, each time with total recall of that darned snowy eve."

Visual Graphics Corporation (VGC), founded in 1959 in New York by inventor Murray Friedel, was a trailblazing American company in phototypesetting technology, bridging the gap between metal type and digital printing during the mid-20th century graphic design revolution. Headquartered initially in New York and later expanding to Florida (e.g., Miami), VGC specialised in hardware and software solutions for headline and display typography, empowering designers and printers with flexible, high-quality photographic reproduction methods. Its innovations captured the bold, experimental spirit of the 1960s–1980s, influencing advertising, publishing, and editorial layouts worldwide.

Condition: Very Good. Shelf ware consistent with age. Light rubbing to cover/edges.

Standard Postage: Provides 'limited cover' for loss/damage only up to £30GBP. Please select the alternative ‘full cover' option at checkout for more valuable items! Excess shipping charges will be reimbursed. Any import charges/taxes, if incurred, to be covered by the buyer.

5161