California Job Case
This art piece reminds me of the “printers drawer” I had as a child in the early 1970s. The piece is not actually a printer’s drawer, and I suspect it was a high school art project (“here’s a pile of old things – see what you can make”). The work is titled “4 Dandelions & Letters” and is dated “MMXI”. The signature is not clear unfortunately. The back is plywood and the edges and interior framing are all old wooden yard sticks. The dandelions are wallpaper, in different colors and gilding. Hard to tell, but the bottom papers seem to be old computer data cards, with vinyl letters and numbers adhered over them. It was “sealed” in some type of varnish (Elmer’s Glue?!) that most definitely did not hold up well – though to be fair, I have it displayed in our barn loft room, which means it weathered -17* winter and 100* summer temperatures. (see odd white flaking in the photo).
I loved to collect the small china figurines of animals made by Hagen Renaker when I was young (1). Back in the 1970s these figurines cost between 49 cents and a few dollars at our local Five & Dime called Stolers (terrible name for a store). A perfect price point for kids spending their allowance each week. I don’t recall how many I ended up with, but it was well over 100, and I loved playing with them.
Given the large quantity, Mom decided something needed to be done. At one of our flea market outings she picked up a large wooden drawer she called a “printer’s drawer”, and I hung the drawer on the wall, filling its varying cubbies with my collection. These drawers are wonderful for displaying collections of things, and many examples can be found on Etsy. In the printing trade, these are actually called a “job case”, and their history goes back as far as the history of the printing press.
“Back in the old days…newspapers were printed by taking small blocks of metal, each of which had a letter embossed in the bottom, and laying these blocks side by side in a tray to form words and sentences. The blocks were wedged together, inked, and the paper quite literally “stamped.
As you can imagine, setting type must have been a time-consuming business. So to speed things up it was essential that these little metal blocks were organized…They were kept in specially made drawers – trays – which themselves were divided into sections”. (2)
It turns out a California company (name unknown) revolutionized the way the trays were organized. Prior to this, the letters of a font type would be organized with “upper case” letters in the top drawer (literally the upper drawer of the large storage case), and the lower ones in the drawer below (lower case). While this made some sense, it was time consuming for typesetters (there’s a long-gone career) to find each letter needed for composing the printed item (book, flyer, newspaper, etc). The “California job case” rearranged the letters, similar to a typewriter, where common letters are clustered closest to the typesetter, and had bigger cubbies.
Interestingly, a childhood playmate’s mother also used the drawers, but she treated them like an artist’s canvas, and painted them entirely. She used the individual boxes as color blocks, much like a Piet Mondrian painting. I was intrigued by this, and can still see the artwork she made in my mind’s eye. For reasons I never questioned, she was always going up and down the attic stairs outside my friend’s bedroom, paintbrush in hand. As an adult, I realize she must have had a studio in the attic of their 1700s Colonial Saltbox in Darien, CT.
I would bet it faced north – as artists always prefer to be up high, with lots of shadow free light, which comes from the north. It was likely a bit of an ad hoc space, as this was mid 1970s, and the young couple was raising 2 little girls in this remarkable historic property. And I got to play in it, having sleepovers in the living room, meandering through the ancient rooms, and playing in the huge old barn. When hubby and I were looking to purchase our current home 25 years ago, I was reminded almost viscerally of this childhood playmate’s ancient saltbox. And I have never forgotten the mother’s artistry on those California Job Cases.
(1) http://www.hrgallery.mysite.com/minis.html
(2) https://peterjonesselfhelpbooks.wordpress.com/2012/07/13/the-printers-tray/