THE CHISWICK PRESS.

THE CHISWICK PRESS.
THE CHISWICK PRESS.

The “Chiswick Press” of Messrs. Whittingham and Co., is in several respects a link with the long past, and, having been in existence for more than a century, is one of the oldest offices in London. It has attained a world-wide celebrity for the excellence of its work, the careful reading and correction of proofs, and the appropriate application of its varied collection of ornaments and initial letters. The Chiswick Press was the first to revive the use of antique type in 1843, for the printing of “Lady Willoughby’s Diary,” published by Messrs. Longmans. Since that time its use has become universal. The founder, Charles Whittingham, was born on June 16th, 1767, at Calledon, in Warwick, and was apprenticed at Coventry in 1779, working subsequently at Birmingham, and then in London. He commenced business on his own account in Fetter Lane in 1790; and in 1810 he had removed to Chiswick, and since that period the firm has always been known as “The Chiswick Press.” In 1828 he began to execute work for William Pickering, the publisher, and his press quickly acquired an unrivalled reputation for its collection of ornamental borders, head and tail pieces. The publisher Pickering, and the printer Whittingham, had employed about two dozen marks in their various books: the former justly calling himself a disciple of Aldus, and using a large number of variations on the original Anchor and Dolphin Mark of the great Venetian printer. Of these we give two examples, one with, and one without a cartouche; and also the mark of Basil Montagu Pickering, the son and successor of William Pickering. We also reproduce three of the more striking Marks of the Chiswick Press, the shield on one of which, it will be observed, carries the Aldine Anchor and Dolphin.

CHATTO AND WINDUS.DAVID NUTT.
CASSELL AND CO.
MACMILLAN AND CO.T. FISHER UNWIN.
LAWRENCE AND BULLEN.KEGAN PAUL AND CO.
R. AND R. CLARK.

The name of Cassell takes us back to the era of Charles Knight and John Cassell, and the inauguration of the noble results which these two pioneers achieved on behalf of cheap and healthy literature. The name of the former is no longer associated with either printing or publishing; but that of the latter is still one of the most prolific firms of printers and publishers. Its Mark is founded on the name of “La Belle Sauvage” Yard, Ludgate Hill, in which the business has been located for a long series of years.

Two Edinburgh printers may be here conveniently referred to. Messrs. R. and R. Clark, whose business was started in Hanover Street, Edinburgh, in 1846, and removed to Brandon Street, in that city, in 1883, are well known for the excellence of their printing. Mr. Austin Dobson thus sings, in Mr. Andrew Lang’s Book on “The Library:”