Meanwhile he had laboured assiduously to complete his promised series of the Roman and Italic faces. At the time of the publication of the Virgil, he put forward a quarto sheet containing specimens of the Great Primer, English, Pica, and Brevier Roman, and Great Primer and Pica Italic, beautifully printed. This sheet, which is noted by Renouard,[559] and which is occasionally found bound up with copies of the Virgil, was very shortly followed, about the end of the year 1758, by a larger and more general specimen, consisting entirely of Roman and Italic letter in eight sizes, viz.:—Double Pica, Great Primer, English, Pica, Small Pica, Long Primer, Bourgeois and Brevier. Of the two last, Roman only is shown. The whole is arranged in two columns on a broadside sheet, with appropriate titlings, and forms a beautiful display. Although the only copy we have seen is printed on a greenish paper, somewhat coarse, the Specimen exceeds in elegance and uniformity most, if not all, the productions of contemporary founders.[560]

[Μ] 72. Baskerville’s English Roman and Italic. (From the Milton, 1758.)

It may be worth noting here that in point of body Baskerville appears to {277} have followed an independent course; most of his bodies, even the Pica, varying from the usual standards. The punches of the Greek fount, preserved at Oxford, show marks of high finish, although unnecessarily, as it seems to us, rounded in the stem. It is probable that these and the other punches of his foundry were not his own handiwork, but cut by skilled artists under his critical supervision.

Unfortunately, very little is known of the operations of the Birmingham foundry as a trade undertaking. It is even doubtful whether, at first, Baskerville supplied his types to any press but his own; indeed, the activity of that press during the period when it was in the height of its prosperity was such that it is unlikely its proprietor would encumber himself with the duties of a letter-founder to the trade in general.

The magnificent works[561] which between 1759 and 1772 continued to issue from his press not only confirmed him in his reputation, but raised his name to an unique position among the modern improvers of the art. The paper, the type and the general execution of his works were such as English readers had not hitherto been accustomed to, while the disinterested enthusiasm with which, regardless of profit, he pursued his ideal, fully merited the eulogy of the printer-poet who wrote:—

Baskerville’s third specimen sheet, undated, but probably issued in 1762, is an exquisitely printed large folio on highly glazed white paper. It completes the series of Roman and Italic displayed in the former sheet with a Nonpareil, and the whole is surrounded by an elegant light border. It is incomparably the most beautiful type-specimen of its day, although it must be admitted that not a little of its beauty is due to the brilliancy of the ink and the gloss of the paper.

Despite the applause be­stowed on him, and the ack­now­ledged ex­cel­lence of his work, Basker­ville failed to make his new business a paying one. His letter {278} to Horace Walpole in 1762 best details the history of his struggles and dis­ap­point­ments:—