The following table will present in a clear form the gradual absorption of all the old foundries into that of James:—
{222}
With the exception of the circular already mentioned, nothing of the nature of a specimen of this large foundry appeared during the lifetime of its owner. As early as 1736, Rowe Mores informs us, a specimen was begun, designed to show the variety of matrices with which the foundry then abounded, and from which types could be supplied to the trade. But although so early begun, and progressed with for several years, the work was left incomplete at the time of James’s death in 1772.[420]
Two causes may be assigned for this fact, one being the frequent and numerous additions to the foundry from time to time, which would render any specimen undertaken at an early stage of its existence incomplete; and the second and more cogent reason is to be found in the fact that the excellence and growing popularity of Caslon’s founts at this particular period tended rapidly to depreciate the productions of the old founders, and, as Rowe Mores himself states, to render many of their founts altogether useless in typography; so that a letter which in 1736 might have commanded a tolerable sale, would in 1756 be despised, and in 1770 scoffed at.
At John James’s death his foundry passed by purchase[421] into the hands of Mr. Rowe Mores,[422] a learned and eccentric antiquary and scholar, who had devoted himself, among other matters, to the study of typographical antiquities, a pursuit in which he received no little stimulus from the possession of a collection of punches and matrices, some of which were supposed to be as old as the days of Wynkyn de Worde.
Whether any motive besides a pure antiquarian zeal prompted the purchase, or whether he held the collection in the capacity of trustee, is not known, but it {223} seems probable he had been intimately acquainted with the foundry and its contents for some time before James’s death. He speaks emphatically of it as “our” foundry, and his disposition of its contents for sale is made with the authority of an absolute proprietor. It does not appear, however, that during the six years of his possession any steps were taken to extend or even continue the old business, which we may assume to have died with its late owner.
Mr. Mores found himself the owner of a vast confused mass of matrices, many of them unjustified, and others imperfect, which to an ordinary observer might have been summarily condemned as rubbish, but which he, with an enthusiasm quite remarkable, set himself to catalogue and arrange in order, considering himself amply repaid for his pains by the discovery of a few veritable relics of Wynkyn de Worde and other old English printers.
The result of his labours he minutely relates in his Dissertation,[423] a work written, as he himself says, “to preserve the memory of this Foundry, the most ancient in the kingdom, and which may now be dispersed,” and intended as an introduction to the completed specimen of its contents. Despite its eccentric style and crabbed diction, the work, by virtue of its learning and acuteness, will always remain one of the most interesting contributions to the history of English typography.
The condition of the foundry will be best described in its author’s own words.