(Vol. iv., pp. 40. 123.)
Hansard's _Typographia_, i. 8vo. 1825, Preface, p. xii--xiii.:
"Of the more modern portraits something remains to be said, and
particularly of that of Baskerville. It has been hitherto supposed
that no likeness is extant of this first promoter of fine
printing, and author of various improvements in the Typographic
Art, as well as in the arts connected with it. At the time when I
was collecting information for that part of my work in which Mr.
Baskerville is particularly mentioned (p. 310. _et seq._), I
thought it a good opportunity to make inquiry at Birmingham
whether any portrait or likeness of him remained; for a long time
the inquiry was constantly answered in the negative, but at last
it occurred to a friend to make a search among the family of the
late Mrs. Baskerville, and he was successful. Mr. Baskerville
married the widow of a Mr. Eaves; her maiden name was Ruston; she
had two children by her former husband, a son and a daughter: the
latter married her first cousin, Mr. Josiah Ruston, formerly a
respectable druggist at Birmingham, and she survived her husband.
At the sale of some effects after her decease, portraits of her
mother and her father-in-law, Mr. Baskerville, were purchased by
Mr. Knott of Birmingham. Some of Mr. Ruston's family and friends
who are still living, consider this likeness of Mr. Baskerville as
a most excellent and faithful resemblance. It was taken by one
Miller, an artist of considerable eminence in the latter part of
Baskerville's time. The inquiries of my friend Mr. Grafton, of
Park Grove, near Birmingham, at once brought this painting into
notice: and at his solicitation Mr. Knott kindly permitted Mr.
Raven of Birmingham, an artist of much celebrity, to copy it for
my use and the embellishment of this work; to which, I think, the
united talents of Mr. Craig and Mr. Lee have done ample justice."
The portrait faces p. 310. of Mr. Hansard's book, and there may be found
an account, though somewhat different, of the exhumation alluded to by
MR. ST. JOHNS (Vol. iv., p. 123.), which took place in May, 1821.