Typefoundries in the Netherlands from the Fifteenth to the Nineteenth century 218

THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY

We come near the end of our survey, which, in the latter part especially, has not
been easy to write. Taste had changed in a direction which one can only regret.
The praáice of typefounding had deteriorated not only in technique but in ad¬
ministration. Whether from ignorance or negleft, events of importance went
unrecorded, documents of interest to future generations were allowed to perish.
Whatever the reason, while there is plenty of interesting material for the history
of our trade in the first half of the eighteenth century, there is a dearth of it in
the second half, and I cannot fill the gaps in the history.
popularity The French Revolution abolished the old order without putting anything better

of Didot s style jn jts place) so far as typography is concerned. When the Batavian Republic was
proclaimed, as though at the wave of a wand Fleischman's design went out and
a more modern one came in. Attempts were made in Holland to provide what
fashion demanded; but our punchcutting at the time was unequal to the task.
I find in the accounts of this firm the name of Ulrich Amant, a punchcutter who
settled in Haarlem about 1793, as the supplier of a Paragon Italic. There is no such
type in our inventory, but I do find there a Great Primer italic No. 8у] by Amant : We have,
incidentally, in our collection a specimen of a Paragon Italic cut by Ulrich Amman, a
Swiss living in Canton Berne.1 The Great Primer, of which we have only the lower-case,
fig. 504, is so like the work of the Swiss punchcutter that I am convinced that it is

Ces caractères ont une legere interligne:
la plupart ont été corrigés, quelques uns re¬
commencés, comme le Six romain et italiques
et autres qui ne sont pas sur cette épreuve.
Leur prix, comme ou le voit, n'excède en rien
celui des caracteres les plus ordinaires, et
l'on en trouvera toujours de tout prêts, fon¬
dus sur la hauteur en papier fixée par les
règlements et sur la force de corps établie par
mon pere, Didot Г aine. Cette mesure simple
est invariable; le corps du Six fait une ligne
de pied de roi.

Fig. 504. Great Primer Italie no. 897. The lower case is
perhaps cut by Ulrich Amant (or Amman).

L'ostentation d'opulence est com¬
munément la manie des hommes
nouvellement enrichis; comme ils
ont peu de mérite, ils tirent vanité
de leur bonheur.

Fig. 505. Paragon Roman no. 898, lower case only.

[1] List of type-specimens no. 136 a.

404

Mach hmvw
123

67890

Fig. 506. Six-line Pica Roman no. 1548,

from the Unger foundry (Sabon antiqua).