the worst news ever for bay area letterpressers
Horrible news for metal type aficionados everywhere:
Jim Heagy, proprietor of an enormous warehouse stuffed to the rafters with industrial surplus junk (including many hundreds - thousands? - of drawers of well-organized metal and wood type, and lots of wrapped foundry type and a whole room full of ornaments and cuts) is being PERSECUTED by the MAN and forced out of his Hunters’ Point Naval Shipyard space.
The Navy in its infinite wisdom is selling the property off to private developers with the blessing of the City of San Francisco and as part of the environmental review process must dig up many sewer lines and perform other underground work which requires, supposedly, the premises of all rented units to be empty as of February.
So - shall we plan an enormous type-buying trip / exploration to HPNS in the coming months? Who knows what Jim will do with all of that stuff. He’s got matrices, books, specimens, lots of supplies and some presses, too.
15.Sep.2005 3.46pm
Count me in, his warehouse is the true reason I moved to SF and you still haven’t taken me there. Let’s take a field trip!
15.Sep.2005 4.55pm
Tell me when, I’ll try.
hhp
15.Sep.2005 7.09pm
I’m down.
16.Sep.2005 6.14pm
If somone goes, I am looking for metal futura. Anyone? Would somone be willing to purchase something for me?
16.Sep.2005 6.17pm
The problem tends to be the shipping...
hhp
19.Sep.2005 10.44am
Yeah, shipping will be very, very expensive - especially for a full drawer. Foundry type, if it’s all wrapped up, would also be expensive, but easier to ship. Very heavy.
I’ll make an evite and find out best dates from Jim if you all let me know when is best.
JLT
19.Sep.2005 1.56pm
OK, the date will be sometime in October, but hopefully not the last weekend (Halloween wknd) - once Hrant and I and Stephen work out the date, I’ll put up an announcement here and make an evite or flyer or something.
19.Sep.2005 9.39pm
Folks, um, this isn’t Katrina. Letterpress is currently in a bit of a bubble, yes, with inflated prices, etc., but yeah know, it really did die off, in terms of suppliers, quite some long time ago. It’s actually a bit more sophisticated than an auction junkpile. If you are interested in saving and preserving letterpress, search out the holdings of willing fine printers. Yolla Bolly Press is currently selling off a significant portion of its holdings.
Gerald
20.Sep.2005 9.03am
Hi Gerald & others. I am quite familiar with the current holdings at Yolla Bolly and the type held by and used at Arion, by Peter Koch and many other Northern California printers and book artists. However - and this is not to contradict you - Mr. Heagy, while not a printer or typesetter himself, has indeed collected the largest collection of metal type I’ve ever seen anywhere in the world, and without intervention it may end up being melted down for Civil War reenactors’ musket-balls.
Jim’s warehouse has for many years been the best place for a young printer to find - for a very few dollars - a shop’s worth of good type in all sizes. The thousands of drawers (and tens of thousands of pounds) of type, matrices, borders and rules, spacing material, wooden furniture, quoins and so much more) have been instrumental in the formative work of student printers from SFSU to Otis to Mills to CCAC and everywhere else in the west.
I think it would surely be a great pity and a shame on us to allow it to disappear, rather than be used for what it was meant.
JLT
20.Sep.2005 9.14am
> it may end up being melted down for Civil War reenactors’ musket-balls.
Ah, an optimist.
hhp
21.Oct.2005 3.22pm
I’m bumping this: JLT, Hrant, Stephen: Is this happening? Did it happen and I missed it?
21.Oct.2005 3.31pm
Not yet. I almost was going to make it up there next weekend, but it’s too crazy with Halloween (plus Joshua wasn’t going to be able to make it then). I think it ends in December?
hhp