Favourite comes home at 3000 to 1!

Back in the dim and disrant when I started doing photography I got a job that needed to portray a printer, so I got on the phone to the Daily Express where a friend worked and begged some bits of hot metal type for the model to hold to say 'printer'. Yes, subtle as a flying brick.
After the shoot the pieces of metal hung around my studio and were useful weights for reflectors and stands. Over the years bits disappeared and now I have only the piece that reads 'Favourite comes'.
I was using it the other day to weigh down a stand and wondered about its original use. Wikipedia has a fascinating explanation of the use of hot metal type in newspaper production. Linotype, of which this is an example (line o' type - geddit?) was produced by setting a line of type in brass casts from which the lead type was produced and fastened to a block of steel(?). The printing was done and the lead returned to a pot for the next day's production.

I will stop using my roll of pink wrapping paper soon.