[592] Dissertation, p. 82.
[593] A Specimen of a New Printing Type, in Imitation of the Law-Hand. Designed by William Richardson, of Castle Yard, Holborn. London, n. d. Broadside.
[594] The Double Pica Script sheet occasionally bound in with this specimen, is evidently an interpolation of a later date, as it neither has the border round, nor does it conform to the measure or gauge of theother sheets. It was not finished in 1778 when Mores wrote. See Dissert., p. 83.
[595] Manuel Typographique, ii, xxxviii. This whole notice is so exceedingly incorrect as to call for mention here. “L’Angleterre a peu de Fonderies, mais elles sont bien fournies en toutes sortes de caractères: les principales sont celles de Thomas Cottrell à Oxfort; de Jacques Watson à Edimbourg, de Guillaume Caslon & Fils à Londres, et de Jean Baskerville à Birmingham”! It would almost appear as if, having before him the names of Cottrell, Oxford, James, Wilson of Glasgow, Caslon of London, and Baskerville of Birmingham, the then existing foundries in this kingdom, Fournier had taxed his ingenuity to make four foundries out of six and had succeeded, altering Wilson’s name to that of his long defunct fellow citizen, Queen Anne’s printer, in the process. This feat has, however, been eclipsed in his notice of the Voskens’ foundry at Amsterdam, which, after the death of Dirk Voskens, passed to his widow and sons. “Cette Fonderie” Fournier informs us, “a passée à sa veuve et au Sieur Zonen”!
[596] Mores (Dissert., p. 83), says he was the first to produce letters of this size.
[597] Lit. Anec., ii, 358.
[598] “R. Thorne, Letter-Founder, takes the Liberty of informing the Trade in general that he has begun business upon his own account, and intends serving them at the following old-established prices: [here follows price list]. He respectfully informs those gentlemen that choose to favour him with their orders, that they may depend upon the best workmanship and materials. Barbican, July 1, 1794.”
[599] It appears to have been no uncommon practice in the trade to make use of a predecessor’s book, corrected on the title-page in pen and ink. Our copy of Cottrell’s specimen is thus altered to the name of a broker; and the specimens of the Type Street Foundry are many of them similarly corrected to adapt them for the frequently changing style of that firm.
[600] In a note, he says, “R. T. informs those gentlemen to whom he is at present unknown, that the Types of the Barbican Foundry are cast to the usual Height and Body; and that great care has been taken to have the Counterpart deeply cut, by which means they will wear much longer than any hitherto in use.”