We do not propose to continue the particular history of this venerable Foundry beyond this date. It may, however, be interesting to take a rapid survey of its subsequent career. {255}

Numerous specimens followed the issue of 1834, that of 1839 bearing the title of Caslon, Son, and Livermore, Letter-founders to Her Majesty’s Board of Excise—the new partner being Mr. Caslon’s son, the late Mr. Henry William Caslon. Shortly afterwards, Mr. Livermore’s connexion with the business ceased, and the next few specimens bear the name of Henry Caslon alone.

In 1843 a revival of the Caslon old-style letter took place under the following circumstances, which, as they initiated a new fashion in the trade generally, call for reference here. In the year 1843, Mr. Whittingham of the Chiswick press, waited upon Mr. Caslon to ask his aid in carrying out the then new idea of printing in appropriate type The Diary of Lady Willoughby,[521] a work of fiction, the period and diction of which were supposed to be of the reign of Charles I. The original matrices of the first William Caslon having been fortunately preserved, Mr. Caslon undertook to supply a small fount of Great Primer. So well was Mr. Whittingham satisfied with the result of his experiment, that he determined on printing other volumes in the same style, and eventually he was supplied with the complete series of all the old founts. Then followed a demand for old faces, which has continued up to the present time.

An attempt to sell the Foundry in 1846,[522] not being successful, the business, again took the style of Caslon and Son.

Mr. Henry Caslon died May 28, 1850, and in the same year the important step was taken of uniting the London Branch of the Glasgow Letter Foundry with that of Chiswell Street, which was now carried on under the style of H. W. Caslon and Co., Mr. Alexander Wilson, of the Glasgow Foundry, being for some time associated with Mr. H. W. Caslon in the management.

In 1873, Mr. Caslon, being in ill health, retired, and died in the following year. He was the last of his race, and the Chiswell Street Foundry, after an uninterrupted dynasty of five generations, covering a period of nearly 160 years, was by his death left without a Caslon to represent it. The management of the business devolved on Mr. T. W. Smith, in whose hands it has since remained. {256}

LIST OF SPECIMENS OF THE CASLON FOUNDRY, 1734–1830.