4. LETTER FOUNDING AS AN ENGLISH MECHANICAL TRADE

[177] Introduction of the Art of Printing into Scotland. By R. Dickson. Aberdeen, 1885. 8vo. Appendix.

[178] Eygentliche Beschreibung aller Stände und . . . Handwerker. Frankfurt, 1568. 4to. Der Schrifftgiesser.

[179] Harleian MS. 5915, No. 201. The cut is undated. The following sentence from Mr. T. C. Hansard’s Treatises on Printing and Typefounding, Edinburgh, 1841, 8vo, p. 223, may possibly refer to the same device. “This evidence” (of the process employed by the early letter-founders) “is afforded us by the device of Badius Ascensius, an eminent printer of Paris and Lyon, in the beginning of the sixteenth century, and also by that of an English printer, Anthony Scoloker of Ippeswych, who modified and adopted the device of Ascensius, as indeed did many other printers of various countries. This curious design exhibits in one apartment the various processes of printing, the foreground presenting a press in full work, the background on the left the cases and the compositor, and on the right the foundery; the matrix and other appliances bearing a precise resemblance to those at present in use.” If the above be a description of the block here shown (in which case Mr. Hansard has confused the matrix with the mould), we are able to fix the date approximately at 1548, in which year Scoloker printed at Ipswich.

[180] A description of this interesting establishment will be found in M. De George’s La Maison Plantin à Anvers. 2nd ed. Brussels, 1878, 8vo.

[181] The legend of the silver types has been a favourite one in the romance of typography. Giucciardini states that Aldus Manutius used them; and Hulsemann describes the Bible printed by Robert Estienne in 1557 as “typis argenteis sanè elegantissimis.” The same extravagance was attributed to Plantin. Possibly the famous productions of these great artists impressed their readers with the notion that their beautiful and luxurious typography was the result of rare and costly material; and, ignoring the fact that silver type would not endure the press, they credited them with the absurdity of casting their letters in that costly material. It is difficult to believe that any practical printer, however magnificent, would make even his matrices of silver, when copper would be equally good and more durable. Didot was said, as late as 1820, to have cast his new Script from steel matrices inlaid with silver. The use of the term “silver” as a figurative mode of describing beautiful typography is not uncommon. Sir Henry Savile’s Greek types, says Bagford, “on account of their beauty were called the Silver types.” Field’s Pearl Bible in 1653 has been spoken of as printed in silver types. Smith, in 1755, referred to the fiction, still credited, that “the Dutch print with silver types.” On the other hand, we have the distinct mention in the inventory of John Baskett’s printing-office at Oxford, in 1720, of “a sett of Silver Initiall Letters,” which we can hardly believe to be a purely poetic description, and probably referred to the coating of the face of the letter with a silver wash. It should be stated here that Ratdolt, the Venetian printer, in 1482 was reported to have printed one work in types of gold!

[182] Among the itinerant punch-cutters of Plantin’s day was the famous French artist Le Bé who came to Antwerp to strike the punches for the Antwerp Polyglot.

[183] Mechanick Exercises, or the Doctrine of Handy-Works applied to the Art of Printing. The Second Volume. London, 1683. 4to.

[184] The index-letters following each part refer to Moxon’s illustration of a mould in the Mechanick Exercises, a reduced copy of which is placed by the artist of the Universal Magazine, 1750, at the foot of his View of the Interior of Caslon’s Foundry, of which we give a facsimile in the frontispiece.

[185] Iron does not appear to have continued much longer as a staple ingredient of English type-metal. There was, however, no rule as to the composition of the alloy. The French type-metal at the beginning of the eighteenth century was notoriously bad, and drove many printers to Frankfort for their types, where they used a very hard composition of steel, iron, copper, brass, tin and lead.

[186] See post, chapter ix.

[187] See post, chapter x.

[188] Psalmanazar, in referring to Samuel Palmer’s projected second part to his History of Printing, which should describe all the branches of the trade, says that this project, “though but then as it were in embryo, met with such early and strenuous opposition from the respective bodies of letter-founders, printers and bookbinders, under an ill-grounded apprehension that the discovery of the mystery of those arts, especially the two first, would render them cheap and contemptible . . . that he was forced to set it aside” (Timperley, p. 647).

[189] Typographiæ Excellentia. Carmen notis Gallicis illustratum à C. L. Thiboust, Fusore-Typographo-Bibliopôlâ. Paris, 1718. 8vo.

[190]

“LIQUATOR.

[191] Fonderie en caractères de l’Imprimerie. 4 pp., and 4 pp. of plates. Fol. No date.

[192] Smith (Printers’ Grammar, p. 8) blames the French founders of his day for the shallow cut of their punches, which being naturally reproduced in the types, was the cause of much bad printing. Some sorts, he said, as late as 1755, only stood in relief to the thickness of an ordinary sheet of paper. He contrasts English punch-cutting favourably with French in this particular.

[193] Manuel Typographique, utile aux gens de lettres. 2 tom. Paris, 1764–6. 8vo.

[194] Patents for Inventions.—Abridgments of Specifications relating to Printing (1617 to 1857). London, 1859. 8vo.

[195] This misguided reformer lived at Banbury, where, in 1804, he printed an edition of Rasselas, 8vo, in his “improved” types. The result is more curious than beautiful, and the public remained loyal still to the alphabets of Aldus, Elzevir, Caslon, Baskerville, and Bodoni. Nevertheless, Rusher’s edition of Rasselas, “printed with patent types in a manner never before attempted,” will always claim a place among typographical curiosities.

[196] This is apparently the first suggestion in England of the “hand-pump,” which was subsequently adopted by all the founders, and formed, in combination with the lever-mould, the intermediate stage between hand and machine casting.

[197] The origin of type-nicks is doubtful. Some have considered them to have resulted from a modification of the old alleged system of perforation, and to have been intended as a receptacle for the wire or string used to bind the lines together. The types of the first printers were certainly without them, and as late as 1540 French moulds had none. A nick forms part of Moxon’s moulds in 1683. In French founding the nick is at the back of the type, while in England it is always on the front. In Fournier’s day the Lyonnaise types were an exception to the general French rule, and had the nick on the front, as also did the types of Germany, Holland and Flanders. Some of the old founts procured abroad by English founders were struck in the copper inverted, so that when cast in English moulds they have always had the nick at the back.

[198] The lever mould was first used in America about 1800.

[199] Clayton issued a pamphlet printed from plates produced by this process.

[200] It was calculated that 75,000 types could be produced by two men in an hour.

[201] See post, chap. xxi. Prior to Pouchée’s introduction of this system of casting into England, Hansard informs us, Henry Caslon made trial of it, but it was not found eligible to pursue it.

[202] The type-casting machine, of which this is the first patented attempt in England, was not generally adopted till after the International Exhibition of 1851, at which the hand-mould alone was shown. The model generally adopted was the machine patented in America in 1838, by David Bruce, which Alexander Wilson introduced in this country about 1853. Previous to David Bruce’s machine, a machine invented by Edwin Starr had been introduced at Boston in 1826, and tried for five years.