23. From Jost Amman’s Stände und Handwerker. Frankfurt, 1568.
Of the operations of a sixteenth century letter-foundry, we are fortunately able to form some idea from the quaint engraving preserved to us by Jost {105} Amman in his Book of Trades[178] in 1568, and reproduced here. The picture represents the Frankfort founder seated at his small brick furnace, casting type in a mould. This mould differs from the modern hand-moulds in being pyramidical in shape, and holding the matrix as a fixture in its interior. One of the moulds on the shelf shows a hole in the side, into which the matrix was probably inserted. From the manner in which the caster is grasping the mould, it would seem that it was bipartite, and needed the two halves holding together during casting. The cast types lying in the bowl have “breaks” attached to them, which at that date were in all probability cast so as to be easily detached. Behind the caster are some drawers, probably intended to contain matrices, of which one or two lie on the top waiting their turn for use. On the lower of the two shelves above the furnace are some crucibles, in which the metals would be mixed before filling up the casting-pan. On the upper shelf, besides three more moulds, are some sieves, suggestive of the use of sand, either for moulding large letters, or, as Mr. Blades suggests, for running the small ingots of metal into for use in the melting-pot. The small room in which this caster is operating in all probability formed part of a printing-office; and another interesting engraving of perhaps a still earlier date, which we here reproduce from the original in the British Museum,[179] shows the two departments of the typographer’s art going on in {106} adjoining apartments. In this case, as in the Frankfort cut, the caster is sitting; but his mould, large as it is, appears to be furnished with a spring at the bottom, more like the later hand-moulds.
24. Letter-founding and Printing, circa 1548. (From the cut in the Harleian MSS.)
In the lines accompanying Amman’s picture the founder is made to say that he casts types made of “Bismuth, Tin and Lead,” a statement which, if correct, shows that the Frankfort types of that day must have been cast in terribly soft metal, of about the substance and durability of modern solder. The presence of the crucibles, however, points to the use of some fourth metal, of sufficient hardness to require a violent heat to fuse it. The founder also states that he can correctly justify his letters, which may refer either to the dressing of the types after casting, or the more important justification of the matrix to adapt it to the mould.
Another interesting memorial of a sixteenth century foundry is to be met with in a visit to the once famous printing-office of Christopher Plantin at Antwerp.[180] The foundry of the great Netherlands “Archi-typographus,” which is still preserved in its pristine condition, was on the upper floor of his house, and consisted of two rooms, one devoted wholly to the casting, the other being a store-room for types awaiting use at the press. In the casting-room is still to be seen a large brick furnace covered with an earthenware slab. To the right of this is a smaller furnace, surmounted by the metal pot, which even yet contains some of the old type-alloy. On the walls hang tongs, ladles, knives and moulds. In a box are preserved small parcels of pattern-types for setting the moulds by, among which the visitor is shown three or four types of silver.[181] In another box are a {107} large number of punches[182] and moulds of all sizes. A bench extends along one side of the room, doubtless for the use of the dressers or rubbers.
In all these points we recognise that even in Plantin’s day the general appointments of a letter-foundry differed very little from those of the modern foundry before the introduction of machinery. Although we have no description of any English foundry before Moxon’s time, we know that the processes in use among us boast a much earlier origin. Moxon described no new method, but the old-established practice which had obtained, if not from the infancy of the art, at least from the commencement of that gradual divorce between printing and letter-founding which led, about 1585, to the establishment of foundries for the public use. We have no reason to suppose that the foundries connected with the presses of Day, Wolfe and others differed in practice from those of their Frankfort and Antwerp contemporaries, or that when, in 1597, Benjamin Sympson, a letter-founder, gave bond to the Stationers’ Company not to cast type for the printers without due notice, he, or the founders who followed him, knew any other methods of producing their type than those already familiar to every printer at home and abroad.
Turning now to Moxon’s account of English letter-founding as it was in his day, we find no lack of detail as to every branch of the art and every appliance in use by the artist. It is not our purpose here to follow these descriptions further than as they give a general idea of the practice and method of letter-founding two centuries ago,—a practice and method which, as we have said, existed long before his day, and were destined to be in common use for nearly a century and a half after. We shall best indicate the processes and appliances he describes by giving a brief analysis of that portion of his book which is {108} devoted to the mechanics of letter-founding,[183] reserving for a later chapter a general summary of the complete work.
Naturally beginning with punch-cutting, he first describes in detail the various tools made use of by the engraver, viz., the forge, the using file, the flat gauge, the sliding gauges, the face gauges, the Italic and other standing gauges, the liner, the flat table, the tach, and other furniture of the bench. Every one of these tools is to be found in the punch-cutter’s room of the present day, scarcely changed in form or use from the woodcuts which illustrate Moxon’s description.
Turning from the tools to the workman, Moxon next proceeds to describe his choice of steel for the punches; the making and striking of the counter-punches on the polished face of the punch; the “graving and sculping” of the insides of the letters; together with certain rules in the use of the gravers, small files, etc., employed in this delicate operation.