11. WILLIAM CASLON, 1720

[447] In 1703, in the Convocation of Clergy in the Lower House, a complaint was exhibited against the printers of the Bible for the careless and defective way in which it was printed by the patentees. The editions specially complained of were those printed by Hayes, of Cambridge, in 1677 and 1678, and an edition in folio printed in London in 1701. The printers continued, however, to print the Bible carelessly, with a defective type, on bad paper; and when printed, to sell copies at an exorbitant price.

[448] The following sketch of William Caslon is mainly taken, and in parts quoted, from the interesting particulars of his career preserved in Nichols’ Anecdotes of Bowyer and the larger work into which that was subsequently expanded. The elder Bowyer’s intimate connection with Caslon’s first ventures in letter-founding give Nichols’ work a special authority in the matter. At the same time there exists a certain confusion in the earlier part of the narrative which it is difficult completely to harmonise.

[449] John Watts, a printer of first-rate eminence, for some time partner with Jacob Tonson II in Covent Garden. It was in Watts’ printing office in Great Queen Street, Lincoln’s Inn, that Benjamin Franklin worked as journeyman in 1725. Watts died in 1763, aged 85.

[450] William Bowyer, the elder, regarded as one of the foremost printers of his time, was born in 1663. In 1699 he had his office in Dogwell Court, Whitefriars. His premises were burnt in 1713, and in the conflagration he lost all his types and presses. By the liberality of his fellow-printers, however, this loss (estimated at over £5,000) was partly made good, and he was enabled to start again and rise once more to a foremost place in his profession. For all particulars respecting Mr. Bowyer and his learned son, see Nichols’ Anecdotes of William Bowyer, London, 1782, 4to, and Literary Anecdotes of the 18th Century, London 1812–15, 9 vols., 8vo, a work the foundation of which is a bibliography of the productions of this celebrated press. See also ante, p. [157].

[451] James Bettenham, husband of the elder Bowyer’s step-daughter, was born 1683. He printed in St. John’s Lane, and attained to considerable eminence as a printer, although after sixty years’ labour he left behind him only £400. “He died,” says Rowe Mores, “in 1774, ferè centenarius sanæque mentis et memoriæ.”

[452] Anecdotes of Bowyer, p. 585.

[453] A tradition in the Caslon family that William Caslon began his career as a letter-founder in 1716, induced the late Mr. H. W. Caslon to adopt this as the date of the establishment of the Foundry. In the absence, however, of any testimony in support of the statement, and in the face of the clear announcement by Caslon himself that his Foundry was begun in the year 1720, there seems to be no ground for attaching any importance to the use of this earlier date.

[454] This Society, which was established in 1698, had already displayed considerable activity in the introduction of printing into the distant fields of its missionary effort. In 1711 it sent out to the missionaries of Tranquebar, on the Coromandel Coast, a printing press furnished with Portuguese types, paper, etc., which, after an adventurous voyage, in which the vessel was plundered by the French of all her other cargo, reached its destination and enabled the missionaries to commence the printing of a Tamulic New Testament, of which the Gospels appeared in 1714, with the imprint “Tranquebariæ in littore Coromandelino, typis Malabaricis impressit G. Adler, 1714.” It is related that the publication of the remainder of the work was delayed from a scarcity of paper, their types being very large; till at length the expedient was adopted of casting a new fount of letter from the leaden covers of some Cheshire cheeses, which had been sent out to the missionaries by the Society. The attempt succeeded, and with these new and smaller types the remainder of the Testament was printed, the whole being published together in 1719. (Cotton, Typographical Gazetteer, 2nd edit., p. 289.)

[455] Liber Psalmorum . . una cum decem Præceptis . . et Oratione Dominicâ . . Arabicè; sumptibus Societatis de Propagandâ Cognitione Christi apud Exteros. London, 1725. 8vo.

[456] Novum Testamentum, Arabicè. Londini. Sumptibus Societatis de Propagandâ Cognitione Christi apud Exteros. 1727. 4to.

[457] “This circumstance,” says Nichols (Anec. Bowyer, p. 317) “has lately been verified by the American, Dr. Franklin, who was at that time a journeyman under Mr. Watts, the first printer that employed Mr. Caslon.”

[458] Dibdin, in repeating this anecdote, uses rather stronger language. “Caslon,” he says, “after giving (I would hope) that wretched pilferer and driveller Samuel Palmer (whose History of Printing is only fit for chincampane paper) half a dozen good canings for his dishonesty, betook himself to Mr. Bowyer.” (Bibl. Decam. II., 379.)

[459] Joannis Seldeni Jurisconsulti Opera Omnia, tam edita quam inedita. In tribus voluminibus. Colligit ac recensuit . . . David Wilkins, S.T.P. . . . Londini, Typis Guil. Bowyer. 1726. Fol. (Begun in 1722.)

[460] Dr. David Wilkins, F.S.A., was Keeper of the Lambeth Library under Archbishop Wake, and drew up a Catalogue of all the MSS. and books there in his time. Besides editing the Selden and the Coptic Testament and Pentateuch, he published some important works in Anglo-Saxon Literature, and edited the learned Prolegomena to Chamberlayne’s Oratio Dominica in 1715. He died in 1740. Rowe Mores considers that in his Coptic studies Dr. Wilkins was indebted to Kircher, the Jesuit, whose Prodromus Coptus, published in Rome in 1636, the Doctor had severely handled.

[461] Quinque Libri Moysis Prophetæ in Linguâ Ægyptiâ. Ex M.S.S. . . . descripsit ac Latine vertit Dav. Wilkins. Londini 1731. 4to. Only 200 copies were printed.

[462] See ante, p. [147]. Nichols, writing about 1813, mentioned that the Coptic fount, having escaped the conflagration of his printing office in 1808, was still in his possession.

[463] Typographia, p. 349.

[464] See ante, p. [205].

[465] See ante, p. [218].

[466] Anec. Bowyer, p. 537.

[467] See ante, p. [215].

[468] Psalmorum Liber. (Heb. et Lat.) in Versiculos metrice divisus, etc. Londini 1736. 2 vols., 8vo.

[469] Moses Choronensis Historiæ Armeniacæ Libri iii. Armeniacè ediderunt, Latinè verterunt notisq: illustr. Guil. et Geo. Whistoni. London, 1736. 4to.

[470] De Linguâ Etruriæ. J. Swinton. Oxon., 1738.

[471] This fount may be seen also in Nichols’ Appendix to Rowe Mores’ Dissertation, p. 96, and in Ames’ Typographical Antiquities, 1st edit., p. 571.

[472] If these were the matrices which Mores, in his summary of the Polyglot Foundry (p. [172], ante), described as Great Primer, it is difficult—unless they were duplicates—to determine through whose foundry they passed into Caslon’s hands. Andrews had a Great Primer, and Grover a Double Pica and Pica; but all these came to James, in whose foundry they remained when Mores wrote in 1778.

[473] Cyclopædia, or an Universal Dictionary of the Arts and Sciences, etc., by E. Chambers, F.R.S., London, 1738. 2 vols., fol. (Caslon’s Specimen faces the article “Letter.”) The first edition of this valuable work—the first repertory of general knowledge published in Britain—appeared in 1728. It subsequently formed the basis of Rees’ Encyclopædia.

[474] See ante, p. [206].

[475] Rowe Mores’ account of the Caslon foundry in 1778, wherein he attributes several of the founts which originally appeared in the 1734 Specimen to Mitchell, might suggest at first sight that Caslon had acquired Mitchell’s foundry prior to 1739. Mores is, however, particular to give the exact date of the purchase, 26th July 1739. It seems more probable that, finding the bodies in Caslon’s Specimen corresponding generally with the description of the matrices he was known to have bought from Mitchell, he concluded hastily that the founts shown were Mitchell’s, whereas a reference to the Specimen would have proved that Caslon preferred his own original faces, in most cases, to those he had bought. See also our notes, post, pp. [247], [248].

[476] Anec. Bowyer, p. 317.

[477] Anec. Bowyer, p. 586.

[478] “Les caractères de Caslon ont été gravés, pour la plus grande partie, par Caslon fils, avec beaucoup d’adresse et de propreté. Les epreuves qui on out été publiées en 1749 contiennent beaucoup de sortes différentes de caractères” (Man. Typog., II, xxxviii).

[479] Typographical Antiquities. London, 1749, 4to, p. 571. The names of William Caslon, sen., and William Caslon, jun., letter-founders, figure among the subscribers to the work; and the plate of facsimiles of Caxton’s types is dedicated “to Mr. Wm. Caslon, a good promoter of this work, and as suitable to the principal Letter Founder.”

[480] An Essay on the Original, Use, and Excellency of the Noble Art and Mystery of Printing. London, 1752. 8vo. The work is of little interest apart from the references to the Caslons, and a curious poem at the end.

[481] See post, chap. xiii.

[482] The Universal Magazine of Knowledge and Pleasure. London. Vol. vi. June 1750, p. 274.

[483] See post, chap. xvi.

[484] A copy of this Specimen, dated 1763, evidently an advance copy, is in the library of the American Antiquarian Society, the gift of Isaiah Thomas, the printer, and is, as far as is known, the only copy in existence bearing this date. Copies of the 1764 Specimen occur in 8vo and 4to.

[485] Forty-four new founts appear in all, viz.: 2 Titlings, 15 Romans, 4 Greeks, 9 Hebrews, 1 Ethiopic, 1 Etruscan, 2 Saxons, 8 Blacks, and 2 Music, while the Flowers now number 63 varieties.

[486] “‏‘This New Foundery was begun in the year 1720 and finished 1763.’ So we are told by a note at the end of their Specimen published in 1764, although the same note tells us that though it was finished, yet it was not finished, ‘but would (with God’s leave) be carried on, etc.’ Amen!” (Dissert., p. 80.)

[487] Among the relics of the Caslon Foundry is a copy of the 1764 specimen book presented by Mr. Caslon to his friend Phil. Thicknesse the poet. At the end of the book appears Mr. Thicknesse’s letter of thanks to the donor, execrably printed by the poet himself, in type given him by Mr. Caslon.

[488] This Concert Room remains at Chiswell Street in pretty much its old form, and is now the repository of the interesting collection of portraits and relics, still preserved, of this venerable Foundry.

[489] A General History of the Science and Practice of Music. London. 1776. 4to. Vol. v, 127.

[490] The Rev. Dr. Lyttelton writes to Ames, April 25, 1744, “Some unforeseen business prevents Dr. Pococke and myself dining with Mr. Caslon to-morrow. I give you this notice that you may defer your visit till some day next week, when we will endeavour to meet there.”—Nichol’s Illustrations of Literature, iv, 231.

[491] Copies of which he continued to circulate, erasing with pen and ink the words “and Son” from the title-page and advertisement.

[492] A Concise History of the Origin and Progress of Printing, etc. London, 1770. 8vo. Reprinted in the following year with the title:—The History of the Art of Printing, in two Parts, etc., J. P. Luckombe, M.T.A. London, 1771. 8vo.

[493] Dissertation, p. 81.

[494] Mores calls this “excavated” or “Hutter’s leading-string” Hebrew. A specimen may be seen in The Scholars Instructor. An Hebrew Grammar of Israel Lyons, Cambridge, 1735, 8vo. The open Hebrew is here used to distinguish the servile from the radical letters. Lyons in his preface deprecates Hutter’s method of printing the entire Bible in this character, thereby keeping the learners “too long in leading-strings” (see also ante, p. [63]).

[495] Mores omits a Small Pica Hebrew, which is the same as the Brevier shown in the sheet of 1734.

[496] These founts are not Head’s or Mitchell’s, as Mores states, but were cut by Caslon I, and shown on the 1734 sheet.

[497] The Pica Greek shown on the 1734 sheet was discarded in favour of this fount.

[498] “But,” adds Mores, “Mr. Caslon is cutting a Patagonian which will lick up all these diminutives as the ox licketh up the grass of the field.”

[499] “Supported by arches.” Doubtless cast in sand.

[500] These were not cut, as Mores states, by Caslon II, but by Caslon I, and appeared on the sheet of 1734, when Caslon II was but 14 years of age.

[501] “These,” says Mores, “are one and the same. The Acts of Parliament are printed in them, therefore we call them as Dr. Ducarel and the Act call them, ‘the common legible hand and character.’‏”

[502] Mores omits here the Pica Black, cut by Caslon I, and shown on the sheet of 1734.

[503] Not Cartledge, as erroneously given by Nichols. This lady was the only child of Mr. Cartlitch, an eminent refiner in Foster Lane, Cheapside, and was born May 31, 1730.

[504] With the addition of the Long Primer Syriac cut for Oxford University, the “learned” founts in the 1785 Specimen are precisely the same as those which appeared in the book of 1764.

[505] The address is a literary curiosity: “The acknowledged excellence of this Foundry, with its rapid success, as well as its unexampled Productions having gained universal Ecomiums on its ingenious Improver and Perfecter (whose uncommon Genius transferred the Letter Foundry Business from HOLLAND to ENGLAND, which, for above Sixty years, has received, for its beauty and Symmetry, the unbounded praises of the Literati, and the liberal encouragement of all the Master Printers and Booksellers, not only in this Country but of all EUROPE and AMERICA) has excited the Jealousy of the Envious and the Desires of the enterprising, to become Partakers of the Reward due to the Descendants of the Improver of this most useful and important Art.

“They endeavour, by every method to withdraw, from this Foundry, that which they silently acknowledge is its indisputable Right: Which is conspicuous by their very Address to the Public, wherein they promise (in Order to induce Attention and Encouragement) that they will use their utmost Endeavours to IMITATE the Productions of this Foundry; which assertion, on inspection, will be found impracticable, as the Imperfections cannot correspond in size.

“The Proprietor of this Foundry, ever desirous of retaining the decisive Superiority in his Favour, and full of the sincerest Gratitude for the distinguished Honour, by every Work of Reputation being printed from the elegant Types of the Chiswell Street Manufactory, hopes, by every Improvement, to retain and merit a Continuance of their established Approbation, which, in all Quarters of the Globe, has given it so acknowledged an Ascendency over that of his Opponents.”

The address prefixed to the 1785 Specimen Book of the Worship Street Foundry had evidently been the inspiration of this tirade, which in turn evoked a spirited reply from the Frys in the following year. See post, chap. xv.

[506] The sheets appear (along with some of Fry & Son’s and Wilson’s) in Chambers’ Cyclopædia—incorporated in one Alphabet by Abraham Rees, London, 1784–86. 4 vols. folio.

[507] These are sometimes (as in the case of the British Museum copy) bound up with the 1785 8vo specimen book as folding plates.

[508] See ante, p. [200]. Hansard observes that besides Queen Elizabeth’s Ambassador, the same family had produced Sir Henry Rowe, a Lord Mayor of London; and Owen Rowe, the Regicide.

[509] This celebrated typographer was born at Saluzzo, in the Sardinian States, in 1740. At an early age he visited Rome, and obtained a situation in the printing office of the Propaganda, where he gained great credit for his printing. In 1768 he settled at Parma, where he published many famous works, and established a European reputation. His Homer in 3 vols. folio, published in 1808, is his most famous work. He never visited England, although one or two works were printed by him in our language, viz., Lord Orford’s Castle of Otranto, 1791, 8vo, Gray’s Poems, 1793, 4to, Thomson’s Seasons, 1794, folio and quarto. He died in 1813, and his widow finished and published in 1818 the Manuale Tipografico, 2 vols., royal 4to, a most sumptuous work, containing upwards of 250 exquisite specimens of type and ornaments. A monument was erected to him in Saluzzo in 1872. Of Bodoni’s office at Parma the following interesting particulars are preserved in Dr. Smith’s Tour on the Continent, 2nd edit., vol. iii: “A very great curiosity in its way, is the Parma printing-office, carried on under the direction of M. Bodoni, who has brought that art to a degree of perfection hardly known before him. Nothing could exceed his civility in showing us numbers of the beautiful productions of his press, of which he gave us some specimens, as well as the operations of casting and finishing the letters. The materials of his type are antimony and lead, as in other places, but he showed us some of steel. He has sets of all the known alphabets, with diphthongs, accents, and other peculiarities in the greatest perfection. His Greek types are peculiarly beautiful, though of a different kind of beauty from those of old Stephens, and perhaps less free and flowing in their forms.”

[510] Typographia, p. 352.

[511]

[512] The Printers’ Grammar, etc., by C. Stower, Printer. London, 1808. 8vo. The following note is prefixed to the specimen: “A 4-line Pica, Canon and Double Pica of a bold and elegant shape, were not quite ready to introduce with these specimens.”

[513] Savage, in his Hints on Decorative Printing, London, 1822, 4to, chapter ii, shows specimens of Mrs. Caslon’s Roman letter contrasted with the old models of the Foundry on the one hand, and its more recent developments on the other.

[514] “Chiswell Street, January 19, 1814. Henry Caslon respectfully informs his friends and the printers in general, that the term of his partnership with the executors of the late Mr. Nathaniel Catherwood having expired, he has entered into a new engagement with Mr. John James Catherwood, brother to his late partner, and that the firm is now carried on under the firm of Henry Caslon and J. J. Catherwood. He embraces this opportunity of expressing his grateful sense of the distinguished patronage the Foundry has received, and the kind encouragement he has individually experienced from his friends in the printing business, since the death of his mother and late partner.”

[515] Typograpia, p. 353.

[516] See post, chap. xvii.

[517] See post, chap. xxi, s.v. Bessemer. In the Directory at the end of Johnson’s Typographia, 1824 (ii, 652), a Catherwood is mentioned among the Letter Founders, Charles’ Sq., Hoxton.

[518] Cut by William Martin.

[519] This beautiful little fount was cut for Pickering’s Greek Testament 1826, and for clearness and minuteness eclipses both the Sedan Greek, and that of Blean of Amsterdam. It was also used in the Homer of 1831. Dibdin (Introd. to the Classics, 1827, i, 166) shows a specimen of the type.

[520] Cut for Dr. C. Wilkins, Oriental Librarian to the East India Company.

[521] The Diary of Lady Willoughby, as relates to her Domestic History in the Reign of King Charles I. London, 1844. 4to.

[522] Particulars of a most valuable property for Investment called the Caslon Letter Foundry; also a most extensive Modern Foundry on which has been expended upwards of £50,000, which will be sold by auction by W. Lewis and Son . . . on Wednesday, Dec. 16, 1846, at 11 for 12 precisely (unless previously disposed of by private contract). In the list of matrices catalogued, the cutters’ names are added, those of Hughes, Bessemer, and Boileau being among the most frequent.