Luckombe Lower Case

The layout is that shown by Luckombe: The History and Art of Printing (1771), reprinted Gregg 1965. It is also shown by Stower, The Printers Grammar (1808) as his No.1 lay, and (as being on the old plan) by Johnson: Typographia (1824) and (on the old principle) by Hansard: Typographia (1825). It is the same as the No.2 case of Smith (1755) apart from q and ' being reversed. It also differs from Moxon, eg ct and ffi ffl f¦i ligatures and the position of ae oe ? q j and Luckombe now having bigger boxes for en amd em spaces. Hansard comments that although the long s and its ligatures had been long disused, there was currently a fashion for their restoration, particularly by the Oxford University Press. The Luckombe Upper (or eg Hansard Old) is the companion Upper lay.

The typecase is partitioned into two equal bays. The empty configuration is Smith Lower.

Note that | represents the long s. Also, thicks, mids and thins are still in one box. Davis & Carter note that Johnson was the first to show the spacing split up, eg see Johnson New Lower case lay.