Display matrices all in boxes (finally)

I finally have all my Monotype display matrices, at least the ones I plan on keeping in the long run, in uniform storage boxes.

Needless to say, the table was sagging a bit under the weight!

Altogether I have 82 faces in 82 boxes, each box containing between 1 and 5 sizes. In addition I have a few extra matrices in smaller box styles, including extra sizes of some faces, swash variants, small caps, alternative figures, and fractions. I still have to place in proper boxes matrices for symbols, ornaments, arrows, borders, and other such items not tied to a particular face.

In the process of boxing these I found a few duplicates which I plan on selling eventually. Before I do that, though, I want to cast the “keeper” set of each font to ensure that it is complete and undamaged. Some of the duplicate sets are missing a matrix or two, so I may try to copy the keepers since I expect that a complete font of mats will sell better.

I suspect that some of the duplicates are because my computer listing of fonts was out of date when I was purchasing. Other are because, during the three-stage Skyline auction last year, I forgot to account for the purchases already made in one stage when bidding on the next stage (which included unsold lots from the earlier stages).

I also now have a collection of the various containers all these mats came in. There is someone nearby who might want the Lanston boxes (at least, the ones that haven’t turned to dust). I’ll keep the neat little boxes from the Anderson auction mats as each one holds one font of mats in a nice compact space; they’ll be handy for packing my surplus mats. Some of the mats from the Skyline auction came in these strange custom metal trays, which just hold the mats in one long row and have no cover. I’m not sure what I’ll do with those trays. Maybe Sky wants them back…

The nice little cabinet I was using for storing display mats does not have room for all these boxes, so I will have to replace it with some other type of shelving. I might have to make something custom for this as it seems that is the only way to optimize the use of the storage space.

The next thing I should do with these, after double-checking that all the duplicate sets are indeed duplicates, is to ensure that my computer database is up to date. One thing I want to do with this is separate out my actual holdings from the stock information, the latter including the correspondence between face numbers and names, standard font contents, and line standard, most of which can be obtained from the specimen books.