A couple of days ago I came across this image of Cyrillic wood type from the Hamilton museum archive. I'm always getting excited when I see Cyrillic wood type examples as they are difficult to find and I didn't know the Hamilton had one. Besides it is the language I speak, but never had a chance to typeset anything in movable/wood type. By taking a closer look to these wood blocks (mounted with nails) it seemed to me that these have never been used. I'm quite curious to see it in use and suddenly had this thought about bilingual theater posters of "The Cherry Orchard" by Anton Chekhov or "The Master and Margarita" by Mikhail Bulgakov. Or maybe I went too far:)The Cherry Orchard" by Anton Chekhov or "The Master and Margarita" by Mikhail Bulgakov. Or maybe I went too far:)
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correction:
Those Cyrillic pieces are master templates which were used to cut type with.
Sep 19 2012, 5:02 PM
Nick Sherman responded:
Those Cyrillic pieces in the photo aren’t actually type, but master templates which were used to cut type with. They are what the pantograph operator would trace in order to cut a reduced version in the final end-grain maple.
Sep 20 2012, 1:08 AM
Armina Ghazaryan responded:
Thanks!
And did they ever made the actual type yet? Would love to see that.
Sep 20 2012, 2:01 AM
Nick Sherman responded:
The type was definitely cut at one point, but I don't know if it has been cut anytime in the recent past. If so, probably not as a full font. Several years ago the museum cut some fonts of Hebrew wood type, but whatever Cyrillic type they might have now (if any) would have probably been cut back when the Hamilton Manufacturing Company was still producing type on a commercial basis.