Fundicion Tipografica Neufville/ Bauersche Gießerei

We’ve received an email from Wolfgang Hartmann, Director of Neufville/Bauer confirming that type casting operations ceased in 2008. I had know this was the case, but this is truly bad news to have confirmed.

I have asked for additional information as he is willing to provide that might flesh out some kind of report on the state of casters and matrices. This may not be information he wishes to provide.

An inventory list was provided of the remaining stock of zinc type for bookbinding, and metal types in boxed form, or wrapped fonts. The list is in Spanish, and while I have partially interpreted meaning, some clarity on numbers has been enquired about and further information will be forthcoming. Suffice to say, the quantities are bare bones with a range of sizes from around 12 – 20pt.

That stated, the types are on a Didot body (not pica), and it appears, on a European .928″ height to paper, rather than the .918″ American standard. I have enquired about milling to height.

See the comments for additional information.

3 comments

  2. A large number of their mats went to a Barcelona university some years ago, in the design department, and perhaps the rest went there as well. I inquired about type sales with Señor Hartmann in the summer of 2008, prior to a visit to Barcelona; he replied that they were no longer casting, had a very limited inventory, and further would be closed for the month when I arrived two days later on the first of August.

    Subsequently one of the British contributors on Letpress hinted at some folks doing training to use the casting equipment from Bauer in Barcelona.

    There are other central figures who might have more information, such as Rich Hopkins who organizes the American Typecasting Fellowship, and James Moseley, with his Typefoundry blog, where he did a survey of the remaining typefounding resources worldwide about five years ago.

    1. Today received a note back from Senior Hartmann at Bauer in which he states:

      The reasons of having discontinued the casting of metal types are the following:

      – We had to move from a rented site of 600 sqm where we mainly had stocked material for the printing finishing (like wire, spirals etc). As we ceased selling printing materials and machines, we would have had to find a small location for the casting. We considered that it was not worth to do so, as our employee dedicated to cast types was aged 64.

      – With the young generation (my daughter is now in charge of the business), the decision was to put all the efforts in selling digital types.

      – We still have some customers who are buying the fonts we have in stock, I hope we can be active in this field for some years.

      We sold the casting machines and the matrices to Imprenta Artesanal in Madrid two and half years ago. It belongs to the city of Madrid and we were told that they wanted to open a Museum. I do not believe they are making any progress at the time.

      I’m looking up information on Imprenta Artesanal.

      Senior Hartmann also mentions Eckhart SchumacherGebler in Dresden, but it appears at first glance that what he possesses, if not offers, is Monotype casting.

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