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ІииГКіІИГ, Гіі« Ret«. N.I î¥c D ÉfgÎÏ ïi 'Л»Ліо7ц»?г' Гк.Ім... Nal. И^ІсЬ^гпшараЛттЛ^тІ -tata, н «- AlCDirOHI JKLMNOfqiiTUVwi ¿ІЬОТгеіІТуЛмыІГ/іКгТѴГІГ Ы*Ъ*ъKtufMImo« И»ь [•еаігТяімьмкогцдіі bvwí îSroK Sjki-ыko ?^Г* T О * W X и. «^. -ы °—w^-. ■*'."T*-t" ïïcКияTt^uÑoTaíríuv»! rei itt¡íijtLiá»er*.*4VririftM ??*^_^!?H?7îî—S! .ggSj-ig ■.■ffitMBWT.TTSft« üb f.tirera «пит?}« «Ssasëçias ЁШіДііРІІ ЩрЩ ¡¡P§Bjg 1785, Specimen of Printing Types, William Caslon, London At the age of 13, William Caslon (1692- extremely old specimen, after hemming and hawing for more than a year, One special example in my collection is a Bodoni Greek specimen, I find the 19th-century book letters rather dull; this is primarily the letter, on the other hand___I already sang the praises of those thousands of Victorian typefaces and their infinite variety above: classic, decadent, Around 1820, heavy competition arrived in the form of lithography. So where did I find all those extraordinary type specimens? Well, I was 38 Jan Tholenaar popular style now known as Caslon Old William Caslon (1692-1766) trat im Alter sam, womit die Geschichte einer der net. Am neuen Standort des Unterneh¬ À 13 ans, William Caslon (1692-1766) la promotion du savoir chrétien) pour Through Knuf's bookshop, I acquired specimens from the G. W. Ovink Naturally, with the advent of the Internet, I've also started looking for In the early 1980s, the famous Parisian antiquarian bookseller Jammes Incidentally, the Jammes catalog reminds me of one kind of type In his bibliography Die deutsche Schriftgießerei (1923), Oscar Jolies men¬ Two-Line Great Primer. Quoufque tandem Two-Line Engliíh. Quoufque tandem abu¬ Two-Line Pica. Quoufque tandem abutere, Double Pica Roman. Double Pica Roman, a. Double Pica Italic. Paragon Roman. Quoufque tandem abutere, Catilina, Paragon Italic. £>uoufqae tandem abutere^ Catilina^ patientia noflra t quamdiu nos etiam 4BCDEFGHIJKLMN Great Frimer Roman. Great Primer Italic. Great Primes Bodv, English Roman, Quouique tandem abutere, Catilina,- patien¬ Laroe-bodied Екпы5н Roman, English Roman, No i. Quoufque tandem abutere, Catilina, patien¬ Pica Bodv, English Roman, No 2. English Roman, No 2. Eng/iß Italic. Collecting Type Specimens - -39
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1766) was apprenticed to a London
engraver and in 1718 established his own
engraving business. After beginning a
type foundry two years later, the book¬
binder John Watts engaged him to design
and cast typefaces for his bindings.
William Bowyer, an eminent London
printer, noticed one of these books, and
this was the beginning of the most suc¬
cessful English type foundries at that
time. Initially, Watts, Bowyer, and his son-
in-law James Bettenham, also a printer,
backed Caslon financially. In 1720, his
first year as a type founder, Caslon pro¬
duced a new typeface for the Society for
the Propagation of Christian Knowledge
to be used for a Bible in Arabic. He print¬
ed a sample page to market the Arabic
type and on the flyer printed his name in
a typeface design that would become the
in the hope that no other interested party would appear who was prepared
to buy it without negotiating the price. 1 went to fetch the specimen
myself, in this case from London. You don't entrust something like that to
the post. It was the 1628 Brogiotti, the Stampa Vaticana. The significance of
this old specimen is demonstrated by the fact that a facsimile edition was
produced. I can summarize a few of the specimens in my possession of
which facsimiles exist: the 1742 Claude Lamesle, the 1773 Du Sieur Dela-
cologne, and the Enschedé specimens from 1768 and 1773. Further 18th-
century specimens in my collection include the 1748 Enschedé, the 1764
Fournier, the 1740 Louis Luce, the 1778 Gillé, the specimen by J. de Groot of
The Hague from 1781, the 1783 and 1789 Wilsons, the 1785 Caslon—with 21
pages of wonderful, ingenious applications of flowers—the 1787 Fry, and
the 1799 specimen from Imprenta Real in Madrid. I also have a number of
lovely 19th-century specimens by, for example, Bodoni (1818), Didot (1819),
and Fry (1824). It is a fair number for a private individual, but only a frac¬
tion of what they have in public collections. There are major collections of
this sort in, for example, the Bibliothèque nationale in Paris, Amsterdam's
university library (including the Tetterode collection and the Royal Society
of the Dutch Book Trade library), the St. Bride Printing Library, and the
Newberry Library in Chicago. I, myself, have quite a few old Caslon and
Figgins specimens, but if I consult the St. Bride Foundation catalog from
1919 (then already almost 1,000 pages), I count 70 Caslon specimens, prima¬
rily from the 19th Century, and 31 Figgins specimens.
which is unusual in that the first name, Giambatista, is spelled with two
t's rather than three (the typical spelling is Giambattista). Each of the 28
pages, the letters ascending in size, has its own unique typeface. The speci¬
men was published in 1788, the year in which his most important speci¬
men, Serie di majuscole, from which Greek is derived, appeared. In Birrell &
Gamett's exemplary sales catalog of famous typefounders' specimens (1928),
the slim volume is referred to as "extremely rare," with a price of 15 guineas
(the aforementioned Vaticana, Lamesle, and Enschedé are offered for sale at
15 to 18 guineas). I bought Bodoni's specimen at a Beijers auction for con¬
siderably more. The Parisian publisher and bibliophile Renouard once said
of Bodoni, "In the evenings, conversing with his friends and in distin¬
guished company, during meals, he was always busy with his typefaces,
justifying a matrix, filing a die, designing a capital."
realm of Didot and Bodoni. A Turlot specimen from around 1885, pub¬
lished in Paris, for example, has 27 pages of 8-point typefaces and they all
look practically the same, each just a tiny bit smaller or larger or fractional¬
ly different in thickness from the next. I can't see the point. But the display
chic, touching, hideous, course or refined, straight or italic, égyptiennes,
américaines, italiennes, syriennes, elzéviriennes, babyloniennes, pompéiennes,
japonaises, milanaises, orientales, latines, letters in two colors, innumerable
fantaisies, Zierschriften, Grotesken und Antiguas, Fraktur-Schriften, Rustic (tree-
branch letters) ... the list is endless. And then there are the filets, vignettes,
lettrines, coins, ornements, Zierleisten, Polytypen, Untergrunde, Einfassungen,
and books full of Messinglinien.
While the book printers, with their rigid, rectangular blocks of lead, were
limited in their possibilities, lithographic draftsmen could put any design
onto a plate, as they did for stocks and bonds, calligraphic visiting and
business cards, calendars, and other commercial printing work. I have a
number of examples of these in my collection. In their fight to compete
with lithographers, typefounders devised ways of setting lead lines diago¬
nally or in a circle and engraved more and prettier ornaments. I already
mentioned the 1862 Charles Derriey, which measures more than 40 x 30
centimeters. The first part, "Spécimen," shows the vignettes. These are
wonderful designs, sometimes for two- or three-color printing. Then come
the "Caractères ornés," the "Trais de plumes," the sophisticated "Coins com¬
poses, filets, passe-partouts," and so forth. The second part,"Album," demon¬
strates applications. This is so magnificent, so stylish, and in such delicate
colors that I can only describe it in superlatives. And to think that it was all
printed on a hand press: a tremendous feat, considering the wide spectrum
of colors. I have one other comparable specimen: The one from the
Imprimerie Royale from 1845 also contains such an album. If you have ever
used a setting stick, you will realize how terribly complicated it must have
been to produce those pieces of printing. The competition with lithogra¬
phy also led to ridiculous abnormalities and unnatural typography.
always a good customer of the antiquarian bookseller Frits Knuf (Vendôme,
France), one of the few specializing in bibliography in the broadest sense.
Style. Caslon then cast a number of non-
roman and exotic styles, including Cop¬
tic, Armenian, Etruscan, Hebrew, and
Caslon Gothic, the latter being his ver¬
sion of Old English or black letters. In
1734, Caslon published the first catalog
for his type foundry, presenting a total
of 38 typefaces. He then moved to the
Chriswell Street Foundry, where his son
and generations after him would contin¬
ue the business for over 120 years.
von 13 Jahren bei einem Londoner Gra¬
veur in die Lehre, 1718 machte er sich
mit einem eigenen Graveurbetrieb selbst¬
ständig. Nach der Eröffnung einer Schrift¬
gießerei zwei Jahre darauf erhielt er von
dem Buchbinder John Watts den Auftrag,
Schriften für dessen Bucheinbände zu
entwerfen und zu gießen. Auf eines die¬
ser Bücher wurde der bedeutende Lon¬
doner Drucker William Bowyer aufmerk¬
erfolgreichsten englischen Schriftgieße¬
reien der damaligen Zeit begann. Bowyer
und Watts sowie Bowyers ebenfalls im
Druckgewerbe tätiger Schwiegersohn,
James Bettenham, boten Caslon in der
Frühphase seines Gewerbes finanzielle
Unterstützung. Im Jahr 1720, seinem
ersten Geschäftsjahr als Schriftgießer,
fertigte Caslon für die Society for the Pro¬
pagation of Christian Knowledge eine neue
Schrift für eine arabische Ausgabe der
Bibel an. Zur Vermarktung dieser arabi¬
schen Schrift stellte er ein Musterblatt
her, auf dem sich sein eigener Name in
einem Stil abgedruckt findet, der heute
als Caslon Old Style geläufig ist. In der
Folgezeit goss Caslon eine Reihe exoti¬
scher, nichtlateinischer Entwürfe, darun¬
ter koptische, armenische, etruskische
und hebräische Schriften, sowie die Cas¬
lon Gothic, Letztere eine Variante jener
Schriftarten,die man als Old English oder
„black letters" (Frakturschrift) bezeich¬
mens in der Chiswell Street führten nach
Casions Tod sein Sohn und dessen Nach¬
folgegenerationen das Geschäft noch
mehr als 120 Jahre lang fort.
devient apprenti chez un graveur de
Londres. Il s'installe comme graveur
indépendant en 1718, et, deux ans plus
tard, ouvre sa propre fonderie de carac¬
tères. C'est le relieur John Watts qui lui
demande de dessiner et de fondre des
caractères pour ses couvertures de livres.
William Bowyer, célèbre imprimeur lon¬
donien, remarque un de ses livres et c'est
le démarrage de l'une des plus floris¬
santes fonderies de caractères d'Angle¬
terre. A ses débuts, Caslon reçoit le sou¬
tien financier de Watts, Bowyer, et de
son gendre James Bettenham, également
imprimeur. En 1720, la première année
de la fonderie, il crée une nouvelle police
de caractères pour la SPCK (Société pour
l'impression d'une Bible en arabe. Pour
pouvoir vendre cette police arabe à
d'autres imprimeurs, il imprime une
page d'échantillon sur laquelle son nom
s'étale en caractères qui sont à l'origine
de la célèbre police connue aujourd'hui
sous le nom de Caslon Old Style. Caslon
grave ensuite un certain nombre de carac¬
tères non romains et exotiques comme
les Coptic, Armenian, Etruscan, Hebrew
et Caslon Gothic, ce dernier étant sa
version de Old English. En 1734, Caslon
publie le premier catalogue de la fonde¬
rie qui présente un total de 38 caractères.
Il déménage ensuite sa fonderie sur Chis¬
well Street, d'où son fils et plusieurs géné¬
rations après lui dirigèrent l'affaire fami¬
liale pendant plus de 120 ans.
library, for example. In England, I bought the Lamesle from Tony Appleton.
Other suppliers were Keith Hogg, Questor Rare Books, S. P. Tuohy, Barry
McKay, and the London antiquarian booksellers Marlborough, Maggs, and
Quaritch. There are a couple of booksellers in Germany who sometimes
have a reasonable Buchwesen range. In America, I have a good relationship
with Bob Fleck of Oak Knoll, and the Delacologne specimen came from
Kraus in New York. With a lot of rummaging and a bit of luck, I sometimes
find something at an antiquarian book fair, a book market, or a collectors'
fair. And then there are the Dutch auctions, such as Bubb Kuyper's. Some¬
times I buy a whole stack for a single book I'm missing. Once or twice
on a viewing day, I've left a note in such a pile, after which the buyer has
contacted me and I've been able to purchase the desired item.
type specimens online. I've bought them from booksellers in places from
Switzerland to Sweden, via their online catalogs.
published a typography catalog. This included the library of the ancient,
bankrupt type foundry Deberny & Peignot, with more than 400 chiefly
unusual and rare specimens. The prices were high and, at that moment,
there was no way I could even think of buying anything. With a lump in
my throat, I laid the catalog aside. It was not until several years later that
I was able to purchase a few specimens from this wonderful Jammes cata¬
log. It was of some consolation to me that, before the catalog was released,
various pieces had already been offered to the Bibliothèque nationale, the
St. Bride Printing Library (which had to draw on special funds from the
British Library), and the Newberry Library. The Taylor Institution in Oxford
had also bought a number of important items. It was rather a disappoint¬
ment for me, but a large proportion of the type specimens described had
already found a good home even before the catalog came out.
specimen that doesn't interest me: the smoke impression. If a letter
engraver wanted to make an impression of a die, he did it not with ink,
but with soot from a smoking candle, which gives an especially sharp
impression.
tions specimens from some 120 19th-century type foundries. There were
far more, though, such as small in-house foundries affiliated with a printer.
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furor ifte tuus eludet ? quern ad fi¬
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