_JOHN BASKERVILLE_
[Illustration:
_From a picture after Miller in the National Portrait Gallery, London._
_Emery Walker Ph. x._
_John Baskerville_]
_JOHN
BASKERVILLE_
TYPE-FOUNDER
AND PRINTER
1706-1775
[Illustration]
BY
_Josiah Henry Benton, LL.D._
[Illustration]
BOSTON
_PRIVATELY PRINTED_
1914
_Copyright, 1914, by J. H. Benton_
_D. B. Updike, The Merrymount Press, Boston_
_NOTE_
_I have, for some years, been interested in John Baskerville, and have
collected his imprints. Knowing this fact, the President of the Boston
Society of Printers asked me to prepare a paper on Baskerville, to be
read at a meeting of the Society on February 24, 1914. This I did, and
that paper formed the basis of this little book._
J. H. B.
JOHN BASKERVILLE
John Baskerville, a great English type-founder and printer, was born
in January, 1706, and died in January, 1775, having lived nearly the
full period of threescore years and ten. To understand him and what he
did, we must know something of the time and place in which he lived. It
was a time when the great middle classes of England were coming into
power. The divine right of kings was destroyed at Culloden in 1745.
England was slowly awakening from the deadly languor of the corruption
of Walpole’s government. Whitefield was preaching, and Wesley was
preaching and organizing. The middle classes grew stronger every day
and kept Pitt, with his intense patriotism and extravagance, in power,
in spite of the upper classes. The rule of England in the East began in
1757, when Clive, on June 23, fought the battle of Plassey. Frederick
the Great, aided by the liberal subsidies of Pitt, fought the battle
of Rossbach in November, 1757, and the battle of Minden in November,
1759, thus laying the foundation of the German Empire which has always
been at peace with England. The capture of Montreal in 1760 established
the English ascendancy in the New World. During this period the English
Empire came into being because of the rule of the commercial middle
class.
Birmingham was even then a great middle-class town; a place of about
30,000 inhabitants, noted for its varied manufactures, but more noted
for its freedom, by which it seemed to have the power of attracting
within its boundaries artisans of every trade and every degree of
skill. It accorded almost perfect freedom to all. Dissenters, Baptists,
Methodists, Roman Catholics, Jews, Quakers, and heretics of all sorts
were welcomed, and were undisturbed in their religious observances.
No trades unions, no trade guilds, no companies existed. The system
of apprentices was only partially known. Every man was free to come
and go, to found, or to follow, or to leave a trade, just as he
chose. Birmingham was emphatically the town of free trade, where no
restrictions, commercial or municipal, existed.
Into this community young Baskerville came. It was particularly suited
to him. He was a free thinker. He was active, industrious, inventive,
persistent. He thought out and did new things.[1]
His first occupation, when he was seventeen years old, was that of a
servant in the house of a clergyman, who discovered that Baskerville
was skilled in penmanship and set him to teaching the poor boys in the
parish the art of writing.
The post of writing-master at King Edward’s School in Birmingham fell
vacant, and Baskerville took it and taught writing and bookkeeping
there. In the mean time he had become very much interested in
calligraphy, and turned his skill in writing to the cutting of
stones. Of his actual stone-cutting work only two specimens have
been preserved, the most important of which is in the churchyard
at Edgbaston. There is also a small square slate slab with the
inscription: “Grave Stones Cut in any of the Hands by John Baskervill
Writing Master.” It is to be noted that the final e was not added to
Baskerville’s name until after he became more prosperous. In the fine
lettering of this inscription it is easy to trace the foundation of
those forms of type which Baskerville afterwards used in printing. He
practised writing during the years 1733, 1734, and 1735, being rated
for school taxes at a sixpence.
About the year 1736 one John Taylor came to Birmingham and introduced
japanned ware in the shape of indoor utensils and articles of personal
or other ornament. From the smallest beginnings Taylor created a
business out of which he had acquired a fortune of £200,000 when he
died at the age of fifty-four. To Taylor we owe the gilt button and
gilt snuff-box, the painted snuff-box, and the numerous race of enamels.
Baskerville had a great desire to obtain money, and as he was a good
draughtsman and had a turn for painting, it occurred to him that the
best thing he could do would be to produce goods painted and japanned
as they never had been painted and japanned before. He dropped his
writing-materials and set himself to learn the secrets of japanning.
It is said that he obtained his knowledge of Mr. Taylor’s cheap and
excellent varnish for snuff-boxes, which was a secret, by following him
to every place and shop where he went and ordering precisely the same
species, kind, and quality of articles that he had ordered. He thus
learned not only the ingredients of the varnish, but their proportions.
Baskerville had that which is rare,--business capacity in connection
with artistic taste,--and he soon built up a flourishing business.
In 1749 he carried on a great trade in the japan art, making such
useful things as candlesticks, stands, salvers, waiters, bread-trays,
tea-boards, etc., which were elegantly designed and highly finished.
His ingenuity continually suggested improvements both in the materials
of which he made use and in the methods adopted in the manufacture,
while he had a genius in selecting as workmen those who were best
fitted for their occupation. One of his advertisements reads as
follows: “Any boy of a decent Family who has a Genius and Turn for
Drawing will be taken on trial on moderate terms. Any Painters of
tolerable Abilities may have constant employment.”
In 1742 he obtained a patent for “a new method of making and flat
grinding thin metal plates and of working or fashioning the same by
means of iron rolls and swages.” The plates were japanned and varnished
to “produce fine glowing Mohogony Colour and Black no way inferior to
the most perfect India goods, or an imitation of Tortoise shell which
greatly excels Nature, both in Colour and Hardness.” It will be seen
that this patent embodied to a great extent the same principle that
Baskerville employed in his later treatment of paper. In the japan
business Baskerville competed with Taylor, not so much in making the
things Taylor made as in making better ones and different ones. A
curious thing about Baskerville’s japan work is that no authentic
specimen has come down to us.
In a few years he amassed a considerable fortune in that business.
He took a building lease of eight acres in the northeast part of
Birmingham, to which he gave the name of _Easy Hill_, and there he
built a house at an expense of about £6000, or $30,000, equivalent to
at least $60,000 to-day. This place is described by Alexander Carlyle
as follows: “Baskerville’s house was a quarter of a mile from the town,
and in its way handsome and elegant. What struck us most was his first
kitchen, which was most completely furnished with everything that
could be wanted, kept as clean and bright as if it had come straight
from the shop, for it was used, and the fineness of the kitchen was a
great point in the family, for here they received their company, and
there we were entertained with coffee and chocolate.”[2] Derrick, in
a letter written to the Earl of Cork, July 15, 1760, says: “I need not
remind your Lordship, that Baskerville, one of the best printers in the
world, was born in this town, and resides near it. His house stands
at about half a mile distance, on an eminence that commands a fine
prospect. I paid him a visit, and was received with great politeness,
though an entire stranger. His apartments are elegant; his stair-case
is particularly curious; and the room in which he dines, and calls a
smoking-room is very handsome. The grate and furniture belonging to it
are, I think, of bright wrought iron, and cost him a round sum. He has
just completed an elegant octavo Common Prayer Book, has a scheme for
publishing a grand folio edition of the Bible; and will soon finish
a beautiful collection of Fables, by the ingenious Mr. Dodsley. He
manufactures his own paper, types, and ink; and they are remarkably
good. This ingenious artist carries on a great trade in the japan way,
in which he shewed me several useful articles, such as candlesticks,
stands, salvers, waiters, bread-baskets, tea-boards, &c. elegantly
designed and highly finished. Baskerville is a great cherisher of
genius, which, wherever he finds it, he loses no opportunity of
cultivating. One of his workmen has manifested fine talents for fruit
painting in several pieces which he shewed me.”
A writer in the Birmingham “Daily Mail” of February 3, 1886, thus
describes the Easy Hill residence: “The pasture was luxuriant, great
elm trees shaded the parklike expanse of verdure, an ample fish-pond
stretched away westwards, and a picturesque disused windmill standing
upon a slight elevation was ready to be converted into the most
captivating of summer houses.... Of the house which he built for
himself we have engravings, and as many remains as one would care to
preserve of that particular style of architecture.”
Hutton, the historian of Birmingham, says Baskerville previously lived
at No. 22 in Moor-street, and that having obtained a building lease,
“two furlongs north of the town, he converted it into a little Eden,
and built a house in the center; but the town, as if conscious of his
merit, followed his retreat, and surrounded it with buildings....
Here he continued the business of a japanner for life: his carriage,
each pannel of which was a distinct picture, might be considered
the _pattern-card of his trade_, and was drawn by a beautiful pair
of cream-coloured horses.” This chariot was one of the wonders of
Birmingham, one section richly gilt and painted with little naked
cupids and flowers, drawn by two cream-colored horses with net hangings
almost to the ground. The panels were said to be each in the nature of
a picture, got up Japan-wise.[3] He became High Bailiff of Birmingham
in 1761. His duties were to inspect the market and rectify weights and
dry measures; also to make proclamation of two fairs each year; and to
give a dinner to the other municipal officers, at which it is said that
an expense of £40 was incurred. This dinner was intended for business,
but, in the quaint language of the historian of the time, “It was too
early to begin business till the table was well stored with bottles,
and too late afterwards.” He affected clothes of the most gorgeous
description. His favorite dress was said to have been green, edged with
a narrow gold lace, a scarlet waistcoat with a very broad gold lace,
and a small round hat likewise edged with lace. It is said that he
attended a funeral in a new suit of bright colors and gold lace.
All this show created a suspicion in the public mind that Baskerville
was in financial trouble, so that at one time he published a refutation
of some charges of that kind in the Birmingham “Gazette.” He sought to
find the author of the charges, declaring that “Whoever can discover
the author, or give a clue by which he may be traced, will by informing
me lay me under the highest obligations of gratitude.”
In these letters he said that he had “often wished an additional
Article in the Litany for the Use of Tradesmen,--From Bad Debts and
Bankrupts, Good Lord deliver us.”
A Mrs. Eaves went to live at Easy Hill about 1750. She took her
two daughters, and very likely her son, with her. She had made an
unfortunate marriage with one Richard Eaves, who, “having been found
guilty of some fraudulent practices in regard to a relation’s will, was
obliged to quit the kingdom.”[4] Her husband left her without money
or any means of support. Baskerville became interested in her, and
she went to his house probably as a housekeeper. Shortly afterwards
Baskerville and she were living together as man and wife. Although
her husband was not known to be dead, she passed as Mrs. Baskerville.
She accompanied him to London to visit Dodsley, and was everywhere
received as his wife. It does not appear that his social position in
Birmingham was at all impaired by this connection. He was very kind and
attentive to Mrs. Eaves, and when Eaves died, Baskerville married the
widow in June, 1764. They had one son, who died in infancy. Baskerville
was inconsolable, and in a letter to Franklin gave the death of his
son as one of the reasons for desiring to sell his type in France. He
said: “Let the reason of my parting with it be the death of my son and
intended successor.”
When Baskerville began the work that made him famous, he was a
middle-aged man, fifty years old, who had amassed a large fortune,
and was living in quiet comfort on his own estate. He was carrying
on a very large and lucrative japanning business, which he continued
to conduct during his life. He was a person of much consequence in
Birmingham when he took up the matter of type-founding and printing.
As for Baskerville’s private character, we have the accounts of his
friends and of his critics, and it is not easy to come to a just
conclusion. Hutton, in his “History of Birmingham,”[5] says: “In
private life he was a humorist; idle[6] in the extreme; but his
invention was of the true Birmingham model, active. He could well
design, but procured others to execute; wherever he found merit he
caressed it: he was remarkably polite to the stranger; fond of shew:
a figure rather of the smaller size, and delighted to adorn that
figure with gold lace.... Although constructed with the light timbers
of a frigate, his movement was solemn as a ship of the line. During
the twenty-five years I knew him, though in the decline of life, he
retained the singular traces of a handsome man. If he exhibited a
peevish[7] temper, we may consider good nature and intense thinking are
not always found together. Taste accompanied him through the different
walks of agriculture, architecture, and the finer arts. Whatever passed
through his fingers, bore the lively marks of John Baskerville.”
Chambers, in his “Biographical Illustrations of Worcestershire,” gives
an interesting sketch of Baskerville, in which his will is printed with
the exception of those portions where, as, Mr. Chambers regrets to
say, Baskerville “unblushingly avows not only his disbelief of, but
his contempt for revealed religion, and that in terms too gross for
repetition.” Chambers was evidently not a partial critic. He records
the fact that Mr. Noble,[8] who well remembered Baskerville, says he
taught his respected father to write, and he maintained an acquaintance
with him as long as he lived. “I have been very often with him to
Baskerville’s house, and found him ever a most profane wretch, and
ignorant of literature to a wonderful degree. I have seen many of his
letters, which, like his will, were not written grammatically; nor
could he even spell well. In person, he was a shrivelled old coxcomb.
His favourite dress was green, edged with a narrow gold lace, a scarlet
waistcoat, with a very broad gold lace; and a small round hat, likewise
edged with gold lace. His wife was all that affectation can describe:
she lived with him in adultery many years. She was originally a
servant: such a pair are rarely met with. He had wit; but it was always
at the expense of religion and decency, particularly if in company
with the clergy. I have often thought there was much similarity in his
person to Voltaire, whose sentiments he was ever retailing.”
Mr. Paterson, in a letter in Nichols’s “Literary Anecdotes,” wrote:
“I could give you also a note on Baskerville, to demonstrate that he
knew very little of the execution of typography beyond the common
productions which are to be found every day in Paternoster-row, and
therefore, in a comparative view, might readily conclude that he had
outstript them all.” But, adds Chambers, “Dibdin, whose judgment in
these matters few will call in question, says that ‘Rowe Mores, in his
abuse of Baskerville, exhibits the painful and perhaps mirth-provoking
efforts of a man kicking against the thorns. Baskerville was a
wonderful creature as an artist, but a vain and silly man.’”
Many lies were told about Baskerville and his work.
The following from the “European Magazine” (December, 1785, page
463) is a fair sample. A correspondent, whose name is not disclosed,
but who signs himself _Viator_, makes the following statement, to
which Mr. Chambers gives place in his “Biographical Illustrations of
Worcestershire:” “I was acquainted with Baskerville, the printer, but
cannot wholly agree with the extracts concerning him, from Hutton’s
History of Birmingham. It is true he was very ingenious in mechanics,
but it is also well known he was extremely illiterate, and his jokes
and sarcasms on the Bible, with which his conversation abounded, shewed
the most contemptible ignorance of eastern history and manners, and
indeed of every thing. His quarto edition of Milton’s Paradise Lost,
with all its splendour, is a deep disgrace to the English press. He
could not spell himself, and knew not who could. A Warwickshire country
schoolmaster, of some parish charity school, we presume, was employed
by him to correct this splendid edition, and that dunce has spelt many
words in it according to the vulgar Warwickshire pronunciation. For
example, many of the western vulgar clap an _h_ to every word beginning
with an open vowel, or even the _w_, as _hood_ for _wood_, my _harm_
for my _arm_, _heggs_ for _eggs_, &c., &c., and again as viciously
dropping the _h_ in verbs, as _ave_ for _have_, _as_ for _has_, &c.,
&c. Many instances of this horrid ignorance we find in the ingenious
Baskerville’s splendid Milton, where _as_ is often put for the verb
_has_, and _has_ for the conjunction _as_, with several others of
this worse than _cockney_ family. Nor can I by any means agree with
Mr. Hutton that ‘it is to the lasting discredit of the British nation
that no purchaser could be found for his types.’--What was the merit
of his printing?--His paper was of a finer gloss, and his ink of a
brighter black than ordinary; his type was thicker than usual in the
thick strokes, and finer in the fine, and was sharpened at the angles
in a novel manner; all these combined gave his editions a brilliant
rich look, when his pages were turned lightly over; but when you sit
down to read them, the eye is almost immediately fatigued with the
gloss of the paper and ink, and the sharp angles of the type; and it
is universally known that Baskerville’s printing is _not_ read; that
the better sort of the London printing is infinitely preferable for
USE, and even for real sterling elegance. The Universities and London
booksellers therefore are not to be blamed for declining the purchase
of Baskerville’s types, which we are told were bought by a Society at
Paris, where tawdry silk and tinsel is preferred to the finest English
broad cloth, or even Genoa velvet.”[9]
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
This spiteful story has thus been in type and reproduced in one form
and another for more than a hundred years. Nobody appears to have
questioned it, and yet it is false, and maliciously so. An examination
of the quarto edition of Milton’s “Paradise Lost” shows that “as”
is never put for the verb “has,” and “has” is never put for the
conjunction “as.” There is no such word in the book as “eggs,” and no
such combination of words as “my arm.” It is impossible to find there
the mistakes which _Viator_ says are in this book and make it “a deep
disgrace to the English press.”
For some reason, probably because he did better work than other
printers, and produced books without so much regard to profit as they
were obliged to consider, Baskerville’s work was very much criticised
by other printers in his time. Dr. Bedford said: “By Baskerville’s
specimen of his types you will perceive how much the elegance of
them is owing to the paper, which he makes himself as well as the
types and the ink also; I was informed that whenever they come to be
used by common pressmen and common materials they lose their beauty
considerably.” It is now certain that he did not make his paper.
Certainly he made it for no books except Virgil and the Milton. Rowe
Mores,[10] in “English Typographical Founders and Founderies,” 1778
(page 86), said: “Mr. Baskerville of Birmingham, that enterprizing
place, made some attempts at letter-cutting, but desisted and with good
reason. The Greek cut by him, or his, for the University of Oxford is
execrable. Indeed, he can hardly claim a place amongst letter-cutters.
His typographical excellence lay more in his trim, glossy paper to dim
the sight.” In a note upon this passage John Nichols said: “The idea
entertained by Mr. Mores of the ingenious Mr. Baskerville is certainly
a just one. His glossy paper and too sharp type offend the patience of
a reader more sensibly than the innovations I have already censured.”
Nichols was a rival printer. He was apprenticed to William Bowyer, of
whom he was an executor and the residuary legatee. All his prejudices
were against Baskerville and his work. He wrote many books, but they
were mostly by hirelings, the blunders only being his own. He reached
the summit of his ambition when he became Master of the Stationers’
Company in 1804.
The following letter from Franklin explains the prejudice and ignorance
with respect to Baskerville’s work: “Let me give you a pleasant
instance of the prejudice some have entertained against your work.
Soon after I returned, discoursing with a gentleman concerning the
artists of Birmingham, he said you would be the means of blinding all
the readers of the nation, for the strokes of your letters being too
thin and narrow, hurt the eye, and he could never read a line of them
without pain. ‘I thought,’ said I, ‘you were going to complain of the
gloss on the paper some object to.’ ‘No, no,’ said he, ‘I have heard
that mentioned, but it is not that; it is in the form and cut of the
letters themselves, they have not that height and thickness of the
stroke which makes the common printing so much more comfortable to the
eye.’ You see this gentleman was a connoisseur. In vain I endeavoured
to support your character against the charge; he knew what he felt,
and could see the reason of it, and several other gentlemen among his
friends had made the same observation, etc. Yesterday he called to
visit me, when, mischievously bent to try his judgement, I stepped into
my closet, tore off the top of Mr. Caslon’s Specimen, and produced it
to him as yours, brought with me from Birmingham saying, I had been
examining it, since he spoke to me, and could not for my life perceive
the disproportion he mentioned, desiring him to point it out to me.
He readily undertook it, and went over the several founts, showing
me everywhere what he thought instances of that disproportion; and
declared that he could not then read the specimen without feeling very
strongly the pain he had mentioned to me. I spared him that time the
confusion of being told, that these were the types he had been reading
all his life, with so much ease to his eyes; the types his adored
Newton is printed with, on which he has pored not a little; nay the
very types his own book is printed with (for he himself is an author),
and yet never discovered the painful disproportion in them, till he
thought they were yours.”
Burton says: “A collector, with a taste for the inaccurate, might
easily satiate it in the editions, so attractive in their deceptive
beauty, of the great Birmingham printer, Baskerville.”[11] Reed says:
“Despite the splendid appearance of his impressions, the ordinary
English printers viewed with something like suspicion the meretricious
combination of sharp type and hot-pressed paper which lent to his
sheets their extraordinary brilliancy. They objected to the dazzling
effect thus produced on the eye; they found fault with the unevenness
of tone and colour in different parts of the same book, and even
discovered an irregularity and lack of symmetry in some of his types,
which his glossy paper and bright ink alike failed to disguise.”[12]
Both these statements are obviously untrue. An examination of
Baskerville’s books shows that they are accurate, or at least the
inaccuracies are only those of the editions from which they are
reprinted, and the combination of paper, ink, and type is necessary to
make a really fine book.
“In private life,” Reed remarks, “he was a bundle of paradoxes. He was
an exemplary son, and an affectionate, judicious husband, but full of
personal animosities.... In person he was a shrivelled old coxcomb, but
in spirit he was a worker of unquenchable energy. Peevish in temper,
he was a charming host.... The one thing that reconciled all was his
strong personality. Whatever else he was he was never commonplace.”
“He was one of those men,” says a writer in the “Secular Review,”
“who strove for excellence, and was not satisfied until he obtained
it. Whatever he undertook to do he not only did well, but better than
his predecessors, and he was in truth a genuine national reformer.”
The editor of the “Beauties of Worcestershire” calls Baskerville “a
most useful and _estimable character_,” and says he was of an “ancient
family, as old as the Conquest.” This may be taken with some salt.
Perhaps the best evidence of the sort of man he was is found in the
impression that he made upon the most eminent men of his time, by the
thoroughness and energy of his life, his originality of taste, his fine
pride in perfect work, his stoutness of courage, and his honorable
impartiality in printing works with which he coincided, and those which
represented the religious views of his countrymen from which he himself
dissented.[13]
Dr. Carlyle thus speaks of a visit to him: “We passed the day in
seeing the Baskerville press, and Baskerville himself, who was a great
curiosity.... Baskerville was on hand with his folio Bible at this
time, and Garbett insisted on being allowed to subscribe for Home and
Robertson. Home’s absence afflicted him, for he had seen and heard
of the tragedy of _Douglas_. Robertson hitherto had no name, and the
printer said bluntly that he would rather have one subscription to
his work of a man like Mr. Home, than an hundred ordinary men. He
dined with us that day, and acquitted himself so well that Robertson
pronounced him a man of genius, while James Adam and I thought him but
a prating pedant.”[14] Kippis adds “his own testimony concerning Mr.
Baskerville’s politeness to strangers, and the cheerful hospitality
with which he treated those who were introduced to him. He was well
known to many ingenious men.”
Baskerville belonged to the literary club in Birmingham, called the
“Luna Club,” which used to meet on the nights of the full moon, so that
the members might have a light to go home by. Hence the name of the
members--“the Lunaticks.” It had among its members many most famous
men. Wedgwood, the potter; Dr. Erasmus Darwin, the poet; Thomas Day,
author of “Sanford and Merton;” Sir William Herschel, the astronomer;
Sir Joseph Banks, the naturalist; Samuel Galton; Dr. Withering, the
botanist and physician to the General Hospital at Birmingham; and
others of like character were all members of it.
Baskerville had his own taste about the printing and decoration of his
books. When Dodsley sent a plate to him to be included in a volume he
was printing, Baskerville told him that his own taste would not permit
him to use the plate. He said: “If you will accept my judgment and
skill, it is at your service.”[15] In fact, Baskerville always had his
own way, and did things as he wished to do them, and whatever credit
there is for his productions is due to him alone. Tedder says that
“his social virtues were considerable--a good son, an affectionate
father and kinsman, polite and hospitable to strangers--he was entirely
without the jealousy commonly ascribed to the artist and inventor.
Birmingham has contributed many distinguished men to the industrial
armies of England; but there are few of whom she has more reason to
be proud than the skilful genius who was at once the British Aldus
Manutius and the finest printer of modern times.”[16]
He was very intimate with Dodsley, the bookseller, a man of great
property and of irreproachable character, who stayed with him when in
Birmingham, and with whom Baskerville stayed when he was in London.[17]
His correspondence with Shenstone is quite voluminous, and with
Benjamin Franklin he had very excellent relations. Franklin visited
him in Birmingham, advised him in his printing affairs, and in the
proposed sale of his type when he was about to give up business. It is
not likely, if he had been profane and ignorant, that he would have
remained on such terms with such people. The trouble seems to have
been that he refused to put himself on a par with other printers, and
insisted that he did much better work than anybody else; this of course
brought the whole clamjamfrie down on him.
Baskerville had probably very little taste for letters as such. He
printed the books which, in the estimation of the public, were most
important. He was a type-founder and printer, not a scholar. He printed
Bibles and Prayer Books not because he believed in Christianity, but
because they were the books which everybody used and which he thought
warranted the most effective treatment. I think he can hardly be
said to have printed a book which represented his ideas, unless it
be Shaftesbury’s “Characteristicks,” which was brought out in 1773,
and is a beautiful specimen of his printing. He admired the satire of
“Hudibras” and was fond of quoting it, and as Shenstone says, “was
seized with a violent inclination to publish ‘Hudibras,’ his favorite
poem, in a pompous quarto in an entire new set of cuts.” He liked
Voltaire, and is said to have quoted him constantly. He sent copies of
the editions of Virgil and Milton to Voltaire at Ferney, and proposed
to him to print some work of his. Voltaire replied in English, “I
thank you earnestly for the honour you do me. I send you an exemplary
by the way of Holland.” Baskerville set up some sheets from the copy
which was sent him and returned them to Voltaire, who replied, “The old
scribbler to whom you have been so kind as to send your magnificent
editions of Virgil and Milton thanks you heartily. He will send you as
soon as possible his poor sheets duly corrected. They stand in great
need of it.”[18] Beyond this fondness for “Hudibras” and admiration
for Voltaire, we have nothing to show that Baskerville cared anything
for letters. He was artistic, but at the same time mercenary and
vain. He meant to print books such as had never been printed, and he
expected that people would buy them and pay the expense. When they did
not, he became disgusted and gave up the work for two or three years.
Then, spurred into action by the attempt of Boden, a rival printer in
Birmingham, to print a Bible, he came again into the field and printed
some of his finest works. But all the time he was in bad temper because
his books cost him so much money and he got so little back. He wrote
Walpole that he should be obliged to sell his little patrimony, that he
had borrowed £2000 to print the Cambridge Bible. He continually looked
out for little expenses. In a letter to Dodsley he says, “As you are in
the Land of Franks, half a Doz would do me a peculiar pleasure, as a
good many things not worth a Groat might be communicated by, &c.” He
was excessively self-confident. He considered himself different from
others. He thought that whatever was brought into being by Baskerville
was therefore a fine thing, and truth compels us to say he was probably
right. His japan work was better than that of any one else, and his
printing was the finest that England had seen or has since seen.
So much for Baskerville the man. We have now to see what he did as a
type-founder and printer.
* * * * *
At the beginning of the century there was no real type foundry in
England. Nearly all the type used was imported from Holland, but
in 1737 Samuel Caslon, who was a gunsmith’s apprentice, issued a
specimen sheet of his founts of type, and after that England could
depend upon her own resources for types. William Caslon, brother to
Samuel, afterward lived with a Birmingham type-maker named William
Anderton, who printed a little specimen of Great Primer, Roman and
Italic. Baskerville probably became acquainted with Anderton. At any
rate, there is here an explanation of the way in which the japanner’s
interest became aroused in the designing and making of founts of type
for purposes of printing. Much of the beauty of type depends upon
the printer, and therefore Baskerville soon came to see that he must
print with the types which he cut. From the very commencement of his
experiments in type-founding he was determined to occupy himself both
with type-founding and printing. It also occurred to him to introduce
a new kind of paper which had been finished in a certain way. In a
word, he wished to use processes for books very similar to those which
he had used for his japanned goods. His proposals, therefore, took
the following shape. There was to be a new typography, and for its
introduction four points were to be considered: First, the character of
the types themselves; secondly, the press; thirdly, the paper and ink;
and lastly, the actual mode of printing.
It is fortunate that in the preface to the second book which
Baskerville printed--Milton’s “Paradise Lost”--he took the world
into his confidence. It is the only preface written by him. He said:
“AMONGST the several mechanic Arts that have engaged my attention,
there is no one which I have pursued with so much steadiness and
pleasure, as that of _Letter-Founding_. Having been an early admirer of
the beauty of Letters, I became insensibly desirous of contributing to
the perfection of them. I formed to my self Ideas of greater accuracy
than had yet appeared, and have endeavoured to produce a _Sett_ of
_Types_ according to what I conceived to be their true proportion.
“_Mr. Caslon_ is an Artist, to whom the Republic of Learning has great
obligations; his ingenuity has left a fairer copy for my emulation,
than any other master. In his great variety of _Characters_ I intend
not to follow him; the _Roman_ and _Italic_ are all I have hitherto
attempted; if in these he has left room for improvement, it is probably
more owing to that variety which divided his attention, than to any
other cause. I honor his merit, and only wish to derive some small
share of Reputation, from an Art which proves accidentally to have been
the object of our mutual pursuit.
“After having spent many years, and not a little of my fortune in
my endeavours to advance this art; I must own it gives me great
Satisfaction, to find that my Edition of _Virgil_ has been so favorably
received. The improvement in the Manufacture of the _Paper_, the
_Colour_, and _Firmness_ of the _Ink_ were not overlooked; nor did
the accuracy of the workmanship in general, pass unregarded. If the
judicious found some imperfections in the _first attempt_, I hope
the present work will shew that a proper use has been made of their
Criticisms: I am conscious of this at least, that I received them as I
ever shall, with that degree of deference which every private man owes
to the Opinion of the public.
“It is not my desire to print many books; but such only, as are _books_
of _Consequence_, of _intrinsic merit_, or _established Reputation_,
and which the public may be pleased to see in an elegant dress, and
to purchase at such a price, as will repay the extraordinary care
and expence that must necessarily be bestowed upon them. Hence I was
desirous of making an experiment upon some one of our best English
Authors, among those _Milton_ appeared the most eligible. And I
embrace with pleasure the opportunity of acknowledging in this public
manner the generosity of _Mr. Tonson_; who with singular politeness
complimented me with the privilege of printing an entire Edition of
that _Writers Poetical Works_.
“In the execution of this design, if I have followed with exactness
the Text of _Dr. Newton_, it is all the merit of _that kind_ which
I pretend to claim. But if this performance shall appear to persons
of judgment and penetration, in the _Paper_, _Letter_, _Ink_ and
_Workmanship_ to excel; I hope their approbation may contribute to
procure for me what would indeed be the extent of my Ambition, a power
to print an Octavo _Common-Prayer Book_, and a FOLIO BIBLE.
“Should it be my good fortune to meet with this indulgence, I wou’d
use my utmost efforts to perfect an Edition of them with the greatest
Elegance and Correctness; a work which I hope might do some honor to
the English Press, and contribute to improve the pleasure, which men of
true taste will always have in the perusal of those _sacred Volumes_.”
This preface shows clearly the purpose with which Baskerville entered
upon type-founding and printing. He desired to advance this art, not
by printing many books, but only books of consequence or established
reputation, which the public would be pleased to see in an elegant
dress, and would, as he thought, be glad to purchase at such a price as
would repay the “extraordinary care and expence that must necessarily
be bestowed upon them.” He did not print for the many, but only for the
few, and he was sanguine enough to believe that the few would pay for
the books which he printed a price sufficient to reimburse him for his
expense.
Fortunately he obtained an artist for cutting the punches--John
Handy--who worked well with him, and yet with Handy to help him, days,
months, and years passed before a single fount was completed. It was
not until 1752 that he was able to report progress with a fount of
Great Primer.
About this time Baskerville became acquainted with the poet Shenstone,
and also met with the London publisher and playwright, Robert Dodsley,
who became a great admirer of Baskerville’s work.
During 1750 and until about the autumn of 1752, Baskerville quietly
proceeded with his type foundry, and in this time the apparatus for
printing was being set up in his house. He spent some six or eight
hundred pounds upon the types. Of these he said in a letter to Dodsley:
“They please me, as I can make nothing more correct. You will observe
they strike the eye much more sensibly than the smaller characters. The
R wants a few slight touches, and the Y half an hour’s correction. We
have resolutely set about 13 of the same sized italic capitals, which
will not be inferior to the Roman, and I doubt not to complete them in
a fortnight.” Then he adds, indicating that the time for publishing the
Virgil had been already set: “You need be in no pain about our being
ready by the time appointed.” Baskerville was not to be hurried. He did
his work regardless of time and, to an extent, of money. In a later
letter, in 1753, he said: “You may depend upon my being ready by your
time (Christmas), but if more time could be allowed I should make use
of it all in correcting and justifying. So much depends on appearing
perfect on first starting.”
Of course, the initial labor in preparing type was immense: “He had
at first to design his model alphabet letter by letter, so that each
letter should bear its due relation to the other letters, on a scale
of absolute proportion. The design fixed, the next step was to decide
the particular size on which he would begin.... Then came the critical
manual operation of cutting each letter separately in relief, on steel,
to form the punch.... Each punch would then have to be hardened and
struck into copper to form the matrix, and each matrix would need to
be justified and adjusted to the type mould, so as to produce a type
not only an xact counterpart of the punch, but absolutely square with
every other letter of the fount.... The moulds for casting the type
... would have to be constructed each of a large number of separate
pieces of iron and wood, fitted together with the most delicate
precision, so that every type would come out uniform in height and
body. When matrixes and moulds were ready the operation of casting
would ensue.... The types would require dressing before they could be
used: a delicate operation, consisting in the smoothing away of every
chance irregularity left by the casting, without interfering with the
mathematical height and squareness of the letter.”[19] Then there were
the press and the ink.
Baskerville constructed his own presses. From the beginning, even as
early as 1752, he had a press in operation on which he printed his
specimens. He wrote to Dodsley: “I have with great pains justified the
plate for the Platten & Stone on which it falls, so that they are as
perfect planes as it will ever be in my Power to procure, for instance,
if you Rest one End of yr plate in the Stone & let the other fall the
height of an inch; it falls soft as if you dropped it on feathers or
several folds of silk, and when you raise it, you manifestly feel it
such (if you’ll excuse so unphilosophical a term). Wet the two and
either would support the other with a couple of 500 weights added to
it, if held perpendicularly. To as perfect a plane I will endeavour to
bring the faces of the type if I have time. Nor do I despair of better
ink & printing (the character must speak for itself) than has hitherto
been seen.”
He said in a letter to France, that the presses were exactly of the
same construction as other people’s, but that he had made them better,
especially in the stone and the platen, all of which could be done with
a person who gave attention to it; and that in printing he used but
one double of finest flannel, other people used two or three double of
thick swanskin; and for a description and drawing of his presses he
referred to Palmer’s “History of Printing,” and “The History and Art
of Printing,” by Luckombe, in which he said there was a print of every
part of the press.
[Illustration: HAND-PRESS SUCH AS WAS USED BY BASKERVILLE
_From Luckombe’s “History and Art of Printing”_]
Baskerville appears to have kept a large number “of hot plates of
copper ready, between which, as soon as printed (aye, as they were
discharged from the tympan) the sheets were inserted; the wet was
thus expelled, the ink set, and the trim glossy surface put on all
simultaneously.”[20] The peculiar gloss which characterizes the
productions of the Baskerville Press is to be found in no other books
of the eighteenth century.
Again, as to ink, a black in an impure state had been used by printers
for nearly two hundred years, and it was not until Baskerville that any
attention was turned to this most essential article. It was reserved
for him to discover a superior kind of black for the purpose required.
Hansard thinks that to this success may be attributed, in a great
measure, the excellence of his printing.
Hansard gives the recipe of Baskerville’s ink: “He took of the
finest and oldest linseed oil three gallons, this was put into a
vessel capable of holding four times the quantity, and boiled with a
long-continued fire till it acquired a certain thickness or tenacity,
according to the quality of the work it was intended to print, and
which was judged of by putting small quantities upon a stone to cool,
and then taking it up between the finger and thumb; on opening which,
if it drew into a thread an inch long or more, it was considered
sufficiently boiled. This mode of boiling can only be acquired by long
practice, and requires particular skill and care in the person who
superintends the operation, as, for want of this, the most serious
consequences ... have very frequently occurred; the oil thus prepared
was suffered to cool, and had then a small quantity of black or amber
rosin dissolved in it, after which it was allowed some months to
subside; it was then mixed with the fine black, before named, to a
proper thickness, and ground for use.”[21]
The lamp-black of commerce is crude and impure, but for two hundred
years it satisfied the makers of printing-ink, who made no improvement
in their ink. “It was not until the days of the celebrated Baskerville
... that any attention was turned to this most essential article....
It was reserved for him to discover ... a superior kind of black, ...
and to this success it is said that the superiority of his printing may
be attributed.”[22] Certain it is that it stimulated rivalry in the
trade, and a few out of many other attempts to improve were partially
successful.
Finally there was the text. Baskerville wrote Dodsley his scheme for
obtaining absolutely correct texts of the works he was about to print,
as follows: “’Tis this. Two people must be concerned; the one must
name every letter, capital, point, reference, accent, etc., that is,
in English, must spell every part of every word distinctly, and note
down every difference in a book prepared on purpose. Pray oblige me
in making the experiment with Mr. James Dodsley in four or five lines
of any two editions of an author, and you’ll be convinced that it’s
scarcely possible for the least difference, even of a point, to escape
notice. I would recommend and practise the same method in an English
author, where most people imagine themselves capable of correcting.
Here’s another great advantage to me in this humble scheme; at the
same time that a proof sheet is correcting, I shall find out the least
imperfection in any of the Types that has escaped the founder’s notice.”
“Meanwhile he had laboured assiduously to complete his promised series
of the Roman and Italic faces. At the time of the publication of the
Virgil, he put forward a quarto sheet containing specimens of the Great
Primer, English, Pica, and Brevier Roman, and Great Primer and Pica
Italic, beautifully printed. This sheet, which is noted by Renouard,
and which is occasionally found bound up with copies of the Virgil, was
very shortly followed, about the end of the year 1758, by a larger and
more general specimen, consisting entirely of Roman and Italic letter
in eight sizes, viz.:--Double Pica, Great Primer, English, Pica, Small
Pica, Long Primer, Bourgeois, and Brevier. Of the last two, Roman only
is shown. The whole is arranged in two columns on a broadside sheet,
with appropriate titlings, and forms a beautiful display. Although the
only copy we have seen is printed on a greenish paper, somewhat coarse,
the specimen exceeds in elegance and uniformity most, if not all, the
productions of contemporary founders.”[23]
The Virgil was then advertised as follows: “John Baskerville proposes,
by the advice and assistance of several learned men, to print from the
Cambridge Edition, corrected with all possible care, an elegant edition
of Virgil. The work will be printed in quarto, on a very fine writing
Royal paper, and with the above letter. The price of the Volume in
sheets will be one guinea, no part of which will be required till the
Book is delivered. It will be put to press as soon as the number of
subscribers shall amount to five hundred, whose names will be prefixt
to the work.”
Finally, after many delays caused by the desire of Baskerville to have
the book perfect, the Virgil went to press in 1757, after seven years
of careful, patient, persistent work upon it. It was a surprise to the
literary world. It was the first fine book printed in England,--the
first of those magnificent editions which, as Macaulay said, “went
forth to astonish all the librarians of Europe.”[24] Every part
of the volume was in harmony with every other part. There was no
disproportion. The book has been well said to be a landmark in the
history of typography. In looking at it to-day we wonder how it was
done when it was done. It seems as though the Birmingham artist had
come before his time.