This last alteration was consequent on the retirement of William Caslon III from the business in 1807. Although this gentleman’s connection with type founding ceases here,[675] we cannot refrain from quoting the few sentences in which Mr. Hansard, in 1825, describes his personal character, while the subject of his notice was yet living:—
76. From Hansard.
“If his friends had not yet the pleasure of occasionally receiving his lively salutations—of enjoying the gay and gentlemanlike converse, the whim, the anecdote, and the agreeable bagatelle of William Caslon aforesaid, I might be induced to amplify on these points . . . The mention, however, of one thing must not be omitted. Some years ago he was deprived of sight by the {327} formation of a cataract in each eye; still his musical ear furnished the faculty of distinguishing persons whom he knew by their voices; and his cheerful spirits enabled him to sustain the calamity with a becoming temper of mind. At length, his courage, in undergoing the operation of couching three several times, was rewarded with the perfect restoration of his sight; and his friends again experience the delight of hearing him truly say, ‘Ah! I’m happy to see you, by ——.’ But although ever ready with anecdote and whim to enliven, still more to his honour as a man, may it be added, that he can at once turn the cheerful smile into serious solicitations, for the assistance of a decayed old friend, his orphan, or his widow.” Mr. Caslon died in 1833. The portrait here given is taken from that in Hansard’s Typographia.
William Caslon IV, being left in sole possession of the foundry, made considerable progress in extending the business, especially by the addition of the new fashioned fat-faced types, at that period so largely affected. His chief improvement, however, was the introduction in 1810 of the Sanspareil matrices for large letters.[676] This invention, which Hansard somewhat extravagantly describes as the greatest improvement in the art of letter-founding that has taken place in modern times, consisted in the substitution of pierced, or rather built-up matrices, in place of the old sand moulds hitherto in use, and it rapidly secured favour in the trade, and was as early as possible adopted by the other founders.
In 1812, Mr. Caslon also took out a patent for a new form of type for imposing on a cylinder, of a size from 1⁄3 to 1⁄7th that of ordinary type, and cast wedge-shaped, or larger at the end containing the face than at the foot; an attempt which reflected more credit on the ingenuity of its author than upon his practical judgment, and which was not proceeded with.[677]
Although no complete specimen book of Caslon IV has occurred to our notice of a later date than that of 1807 (which is itself the 1803 book altered by pen and ink), the numerous sheets appearing from time to time, and collected in the first specimen of his successors, prove that one or more specimens of the foundry must have appeared during the interval.
In 1819, Mr. Caslon, Junr. disposed of his foundry to Messrs. Blake, Garnett & Co., of Sheffield, to which town the entire stock was removed.
After his retirement from type-founding, he devoted himself actively to the {328} scheme for lighting London with coal-gas. For some of his appliances in connection with this business—the sliding water-joints for pendants and chandeliers amongst others—he received the medal of the Society of Arts (his only reward, for he did not patent his invention). In 1832 he went to reside at Henley, and ten years later was afflicted with total blindness, an operation for cataract having proved unsuccessful. In this state he continued for twenty-seven years, “tired,” as he said, “of having been so long in the dark,” but serene in temper, and his mind illuminated with Christian hope. He taught himself to read the embossed printing for the blind, and was able to write by the aid of a simple apparatus constructed for that purpose. He lived, in spite of his affliction, to a cheerful old age, and died in 1869, aged 88. He left no son.
To estimate the complete revolution which had taken place in the productions of this foundry during the interval between 1807 and 1819, it is only necessary to glance through the first specimen book of the new proprietors, issued in the latter year, which may be taken to represent the state of the foundry pretty nearly as it was at the time of its transfer to Sheffield. There is not a single fount in the one book which reappears in the other. The modern fat-face Romans and Egyptians[678] take the place of Jackson’s elegant old-style letters. The Orientals have completely disappeared, and the general appearance of the book reflects as much as any specimen of the period the prevalent taste of a so-called improved art.