In 1828 another complete specimen appeared, showing the new series of Romans from Double Pica to Diamond, Greek, and fifteen pages of flowers.
Mr. Andrew Wilson dying in 1830, the management of the business devolved on his sons Alexander and Patrick, by whom it was decided, in 1832, to establish a branch house in Edinburgh. {265}
A handsome 4to specimen of the Roman letter of the Foundry was published in 1833. This volume is interesting as being one of the first to show the letter not only in the venerable “Quousque tandem” paragraph, but also in an English garb.[540] It includes also five pages of Greek, in which the Double Pica “Homer” is still prominent, and two pages of Hebrew, but no other orientals.
In 1834 the important step was taken of transferring the Glasgow Foundry to London, where, in premises at New Street, Gough Square, the business was carried on.[541]
Briefly to trace the later vicissitudes of the Foundry we may add that, about 1834, a further development of the business was completed by the establishment of a Foundry at Two-Waters in Hertfordshire, where it was expected the cost of production would be considerably reduced by the cheaper labour attainable in the country. A strike occurring in 1837 among the London workmen, the Gough Square House was closed. In 1840 another branch was established at Dublin. Despite the activity of Mr. Alex. Wilson and the continued excellence of his types, the business declined. The latter years of his management were spent in fruitless endeavours to supersede the old method of handcasting by machinery. The various experiments made, however, (one of which was by the present Sir Henry Bessemer, whose father[542] had been a type-founder) failed, and tended further to diminish Mr. Wilson’s resources, until in 1845 be became bankrupt.
The London and Two-Waters Foundries being offered for sale by auction, the principal part of the matrices were purchased by the proprietors of the Caslon Foundry in 1850, Mr. Wilson remaining for some time with Mr. Caslon as joint manager.
The Edinburgh branch of the business, started in 1832, had continued for {266} some time with Mr. Duncan Sinclair as managing partner. But on the latter withdrawing from the concern and establishing himself as an independent founder at Whiteford House, Edinburgh, about 1839, the management was entrusted to Mr. John Gallie.
On the breaking up of the business, the plant of the Edinburgh and Dublin branches was acquired by Dr. James Marr, who, in association with Mr. Gallie, carried on the business under the firm of Marr, Gallie, and Co. In 1853 it was James Marr and Co., with branches in London, Edinburgh, and Dublin. Dr. James Marr died in 1866, from which time till 1874, the business was carried on by his widow, with Mr. John Blair as manager. In 1874 it was converted into a Limited Company under the title of the Marr Typefounding Company, Limited, who removed the business from the old premises in New Street, Edinburgh, to Whiteford House, where it is still carried on.
Mr. Duncan Sinclair, between whose specimens and those of the Wilson Foundry there was an obvious similarity, continued for some years at Whiteford House, where his son, formerly manager at the Two-Waters branch of the Glasgow Foundry, subsequently joined him. They published specimens in 1840, 1842, and 1846 (which latter included a fount of “Gem”). In 1861 the Whiteford House Foundry was in the hands of John Milne and Co., who published a quarto specimen. In 1870 the contents of this foundry were dispersed at public auction, and the premises, as already stated, were shortly afterwards taken by the Marr Typefounding Company.