HIS foundry was begun in Sheffield about the beginning of the present century. In 1810, Mr. Bower issued a price list below those of the London founders, whose founts he succeeded occasionally in underselling. Hansard mentions the foundry in 1824, under the style of Bower, Bacon and Bower. No specimen is known with an earlier date than 1837, when the firm was G. W. Bower, late Bower and Bacon.
A later specimen bears the name of Mr. G. W. Bower alone, and in 1841 the firm was Bower Brothers, who published Proposals for establishing a graduated scale of sizes for the bodies of Printing Types, and fixing their height-to-paper, based upon Pica as the common standard.[743]
After the death of Mr. G. W. Bower, the foundry was continued by Mr. Henry Bower till his death about 1851, in September of which year the plant and stock were sold by auction and dispersed among the other founders. The Catalogue of this Sale contained about 50,000 punches and matrices; many of them, however, being obsolete or of small value. {358}
BROWN, 1810.—LYNCH, 1810.
These two individuals are included among the Letter Founders whose names are given in Mason’s Printer’s Assistant[744]—the former having had his place of business in Green Street, Blackfriars, and the latter in Featherstone Buildings. They do not appear to have continued long in business, and their names are not included in the list of Letter Founders given in Johnson’s Typographia in 1824.
MATTHEWSON, circ. 1810.
This man was founding in Edinburgh in 1810, at which date he had some correspondence with the Associated Founders respecting prices. Hansard mentions him as an incipient founder even in 1825, and a competitor of Mr. Miller’s. Nothing is known of the fate of his foundry; nor has any Specimen of his types come under notice.