The printing office connected with the foundry distinguished itself in the interval by the production of two highly interesting Bibles, the one a folio, published in 1774, and the other an 8vo, in five volumes, published 1774–6.[618] Both are elegantly printed in the clear Great Primer letter shown in the 1770 Specimen; the latter being in long lines specially for the use of the aged. The general appearance of the folio edition compares not unfavourably with the Baskerville Bible of 1772.

In 1774, Pine printed at Bristol a very neat Bible in the Pearl type of the foundry, “being”, says the preface, “the smallest a Bible was ever printed with, and made on purpose for this work.”[619] {302}

Moore’s connection with the business appears to have terminated in 1776, after which the style of the firm became J. Fry and Co., who in the following year issued, in their own name, reprints of the folio and octavo Bibles above referred to.[620] No specimen-sheet of their types appeared till seven years later, by which time Mr. Pine had also withdrawn from the business.[621] He continued to print the Bristol Gazette in Wine Street, Bristol, till the time of his death, which occurred in 1803, at the age of sixty-four years.

Left to himself, Mr. Fry, in the year 1782, admitted his sons Edmund and Henry into partnership, under whose supervision the work of re-cutting the Romans of the foundry made active progress.

Edmund Fry, probably the most learned letter-founder of his day, had, like his father, been educated for the medical profession, and had taken his doctor’s degree. But the infirmity of deafness prevented him from following that walk in life, and he abandoned it for typefounding, applying himself to that pursuit, not only with the enthusiasm of an ardent philologist, but also with considerable natural ability for conducting the practical operations of the art.

The year of his entry into the business (1782) was signalised by an important event in the typefounding world—the sale of James’s foundry. This event has been fully alluded to elsewhere,[622] but it is interesting to note that the Frys were considerable purchasers on the occasion, securing amongst other items the chief part of the “learned” and foreign matrices, for which that collection was noted.

The following list of their purchases forms an interesting connecting link between the old and the new letter-foundries; particularly as either punches or matrices of all the founts (and in some cases both) still exist, many of the latter being to this day in occasional use:— {303}

The business was shortly afterwards removed to Worship Street, hard by the old premises; and here, in 1785, the first specimen-book of the foundry was issued. This volume exhibits the greater part of the new Caslon series of Romans, which the proprietors in their “Advertisement” frankly admit to have been cut in the closest possible imitation of that ingenious artist’s models.[624] It includes also two pages of Hebrew type. Later in the same year appeared a large broadside sheet printed both sides, containing an epitome of the specimen-book, and displaying, besides the Arabic, Hebrews, Greek and Samaritan {304} recently acquired at James’s sale,one or two fresh Hebrew founts lately finished. Considerable variety is thrown into this and later specimens by showing each size not only on its own body, but upon the bodies next larger and next smaller,—short descending sorts being specially cut for the latter. The broadside also includes a Diamond Roman, the first in England, for which the founders claim that it is “the smallest letter in the world,” adding subsequently that it “gets in considerably more than the famous Dutch Diamond.”