JOHN BASKERVILLE, 1752.
JOHN BASKERVILLE was Born at Wolverley, in The county of
Worcestershire, in the year 1706. He began life as a footman to
a clergyman, and at the age of twenty became a writing-master in
Birmingham. This occupation he appears to have supplemented by, or
exchanged for, that of engraving inscriptions on tombstones and
memorials; a profession in which he is said to have shown much
talent.[543] In 1737 he was still engaged in teaching writing at a
school in the Bull-Ring, Birmingham, and is said to have written an
excellent hand. His artistic tastes led him afterwards to enter into
the japanning business, in which he prospered and became possessed of
considerable property. He purchased an estate on the outskirts of the
town, to which he gave the name of Easy Hill; and here built a handsome
house, in which he carried on his business, and lived in considerable
style.[544]
[Illustration: 70. From _Hansard_.]
About the year 1750 his inclination for letters induced him to turn
his {269} attention to typography, and to add to his business of a
japanner that of a printer.[545]
The condition of printing in England at this period was still anything
but satisfactory. Fine printing was an art unknown; and although
under the influence of Caslon’s genius the press was recovering from
the reproach under which it lay at the beginning of the century,
England was still very far behind her neighbours both in typographical
enterprise and achievement. Once more it was left to an outsider to
initiate the new departure; and as in 1720 the art of letter-founding
had been roused from its lethargy by the genius of a gunsmith’s
apprentice, so in 1750 the art of printing was destined to find its
deliverer in the person of an eccentric Birmingham japanner. Whatever
may be the judgment of posterity as to the merits of Baskerville’s
performances, to him is undoubtedly due the honour of the first real
stride towards a higher level of national typography; an example which
became the incentive to that outburst of enthusiasm—that “matrix and
puncheon mania,” as Dibdin terms it—which brought forth the series of
splendid typographical productions with which the eighteenth century
closed and the nineteenth opened.
Baskerville’s first essay in his new enterprise was deliberate, and
gave ample proof of the enthusiasm of the man. Six years elapsed
before any work issued from his press. During that period he is said
to have sunk upwards of £600[546] in the effort to produce a type
sufficiently perfect to satisfy his fastidious taste. He engaged the
best punch-cutters that could be had,[547] in addition to which he made
his own moulds, chases, ink, presses, and, indeed, almost the entire
apparatus of the art.
The following extracts from letters in the possession of Mr. S.
Timmins, to whose industrious researches the student of typography is
indebted for much new light on the history of Baskerville’s career,
and to whose courtesy we are indebted for the present opportunity
of placing them before our readers, will {270} best describe the
marvellous industry and enthusiasm which carried our printer to the
successful issue of his great enterprise. The letters form part of
a correspondence between Baskerville and his friend R. Dodsley, the
publisher, respecting the preparations for his earliest printing
venture:―
_Baskerville to R. Dodsley._ 2nd October 1752.
“To remove in some measure your impatience, I have sent you an
impression of fourteen punches of the Two-lines Great Primer,
which have been begun and finished in nine days only, and contain
all the letters Roman necessary in the Titles and Half-titles. I
cannot forbear saying they please me, as I can make nothing more
correct, nor shall you see anything of mine much less so. You’ll
observe they strike the eye much more sensibly than the smaller
characters, tho’ equally perfect, till the press shows them to
more advantage. The press is creeping slowly towards perfection.
I flatter myself with being able to print nearly as good a colour
and smooth a stroke as the enclosed. I should esteem it a favour
if you’d send me the Initial Letters of all the Cantos lest they
should not be included in the said fourteen, and three or four
pages of any part of the Poem from whence to form a Bill for the
casting a suitable number of each letter. The R wants a few slight
touches, and the Y half an hour’s correction. This day we have
resolutely set about thirteen of the same siz’d Italic Capitals,
which will not be at all inferior to the Roman, and I doubt not to
complete them in a fortnight. You need, therefore, be in no pain
about our being ready by the time appointed. Our best respects to
Mrs. Dodsley and our friend, Mr. Beckett.”
_Baskerville to R. Dodsley._ 19th October 1752.
“As I proposed in my last, I have sent you impressions from a
candle of twenty Two-lines Great Primer Italick, which were begun
and finished in ten days only. We are now about the figures,
which are in good forwardness, and changing a few of those
letters we concluded finished. My next care will be to strike the
punches into copper and justify them with all the care and skill
I am master of. You may depend on 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 . . .”
_Baskerville to R. Dodsley._ 16th January 1754.
“I have put the last hand to my Great Primer, and have corrected
fourteen letters in the specimen you were so kind to approve, and
have made a good progress in the English, and have formed a new
alphabet of Two-line Double Pica and Two-line Small Pica capitals
for Titles, not one of which I can mend with a wish, as they come
up to the most perfect idea I have of letters.”
He then details his scheme for obtaining absolutely correct texts of
the works he is 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 {271} 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. I have great
encomiums on my Specimen from Scotland.”
The concluding sentence of this letter probably refers to the public
announcement of the forthcoming quarto _Virgil_,[548] put forward about
this time, together with a specimen of the type. This most interesting
document, a very few copies of which still exist, is in the form of a
quarto sheet, headed, “_A Specimen by John Baskerville, of Birmingham,
in the County of Warwick, Letter Founder and Printer_.” It displays the
Roman and Italic of the Great Primer fount, and is remarkable not only
as a piece of exquisite printing,[549] but as the first known specimen
of the famous Birmingham foundry.
The following letters refer principally to the progress and completion
of the _Virgil_:―
_Baskerville to R. Dodsley._ Birmingham, 20th December 1756.
“I shall have _Virgil_ out of the press by the latter end of
January, and hope to produce the Volume as smooth as the best
paper I have sent you. Pray, will it not be proper to advertize
how near it is finishing, and beg the gentlemen who intend
favouring me with their names, to send them by that time? When
this is done, I can print nothing at home but another Classick
(a specimen of which will be given with it) which I cannot
forbear thinking a grievous hardship after the infinite pains and
great expense I have been at. I have almost a mind to print a
pocket Classick in one size larger than the old Elzevirs, as the
difference will, on comparison, be obvious to every Scholar; nor
should I be very sollicitous whether it paid me or not.”
_R. Dodsley to Baskerville._ 10th February 1757.
“The account you give me of the _Virgil_ pleases me much, and I
hope you will in that have all the success your heart can wish.
I beg if you have any objection, addition or alteration to make
in the following Advertisement you will let me know by return of
post:―
{272}
“ ‘TO THE PUBLIC.
“ ‘John Baskerville of Birmingham thinks proper to give notice
that having now finished his Edition of _Virgil_ in one Volume,
Quarto, it will be published the latter end of next month, price
one guinea in sheets. He therefore desires that such gentlemen who
intend to favour him with their names, will be pleased to send
them either to himself at Birmingham, or to R. and J. Dodsley in
Pall Mall, in order that they may be inserted in the list of his
encouragers.’ ”
_R. Dodsley to Baskerville._ April 7, 1757.
“I am very sorry I advertised your _Virgil_ to be published last
month as you have not enabled me to keep my word with the public;
but I hope it will not be delayed any longer, as every day you
lose now the season is so far advanced, is certainly a great
loss to you. I hope I shall have the pleasure of seeing you and
it together. However, if the delay is occasioned by your making
corrections, I think that a point of so much consequence, that
no consideration should induce you to publish till it is quite
correct. As to the ornamented paper, I will lower the price since
you think it proper, but am still of opinion that it will not sell
at our end of the town, tho’ for what reason I cannot imagine.
. . . I like exceedingly your specimen of a _Common Prayer_, and
hope you are endeavouring to get leave to print one. There is an
error in the Exhortation, _shall_ for _should_. Your small letter
is extremely beautiful; I wish I could advise you what to print
with it. What think you of some popular French book—_Gil Blas_,
_Molière_, or _Telemaque_ ? In the specimen from _Melmoth_ I think
you have used too many Capitals, which is generally thought to
spoil the beauty of printing; but they should never be used to
adjectives, verbs, or adverbs. My best compliments attend your
whole family.”
At length, after repeated delays, caused mainly by the nervous
fastidiousness of the printer, who even corrected his work _currenti
prelo_ up to the last moment, the famous _Virgil_ appeared in
1757,[550] and with its publication Baskerville’s reputation was made.
Being the earliest performance of this press, the volume possesses
a peculiar interest among the productions of English typography.
Opinions may differ as to some of the eulogies pronounced on it
by bibliographers and bibliophiles,[551] but as a typographical
curiosity,[552] and as a pioneer of fine printing in our midst, it is a
work to be treasured and reverenced. {273}
From a letter-founder’s point of view its chief interest consists in
its being the earliest book printed in the type of the new Birmingham
foundry. The fount used is a Great Primer, slender and delicate in
form, combining, as Dibdin says, in a singularly happy manner, the
elegance of Plantin with the clearness of the Elzevirs. The Italic
letter was specially admired for its freedom and symmetry—qualities in
which it excelled even the beautiful founts of Aldus and Colinæus.
Baskerville’s merit met with prompt recognition in many quarters,
amongst others, by the Delegates of the Oxford Press, who, in 1758
(apparently on his own application), entrusted him with the cutting
and casting of a new Greek fount for their own use. A record of
this important transaction remains in the following Minutes of the
Delegates:―
“June 6, 1758.—Present (among others) Dr. (Sir W.) Blackstone.
_Order’d_ that this Delegacy will at their next meeting take into
consideration Mr. Baskerville’s Proposals for casting a Set of new
Greek Types.
“July 5, 1758.—_Ordered_ that Dr. Blackstone be empowered to agree
with Mr. Baskerville of Birmingham to make a new set of Greek
Puncheons, matrices and moulds, in Great Primer, for the Use of
the University, and also to cast therein 300 Weight of Types, at
the Price of 200 Guineas for the whole. And that he and Mr. Prince
(Warehouse-keeper) do give proper Directions for that Purpose.
“Jan. 31, 1759.—_Agreed_ that Mr. Musgrave have leave to print his
_Euripides_ at the University Press on Mr. Baskerville’s Types as
soon as they arrive.[553]
“March 11, 1761.—_Ordered_, That a Greek Testament in Quarto and
Octavo be printed on Baskerville’s Letter, and three or four
Gentlemen of Learning and Accuracy be desired separately to
correct the Proofs.
“June 23, 1761.—500 copies in Quarto and 2,000 in Octavo ordered
to be printed.”
In the accounts for 1761 the following entry records the conclusion of
the business:―
“To Mr. Baskerville for Greek Types . . . . £210 0 0.”
Considerable expectation was aroused by this order, which was
considered of sufficient importance to deserve mention in the public
press, as the following extract from the _St. James’s Chronicle_ of
September 5, 1758, testifies:―
“The University of Oxford have lately contracted with Mr.
Baskerville of Birmingham for a complete Alphabet of Greek Types
of the Great Primer size; and it is not doubted but that ingenious
artist will excel in that Character, as he has already done in
the Roman and Italic, in his elegant edition of _Virgil_, which
has gained the applause and admiration of most of the literati of
Europe, as well as procured him the esteem and patronage of such
of his own countrymen as distinguish themselves by paying a due
regard to merit.”
The anticipations thus expressed were destined to be disappointed; for
{274} Baskerville’s genius appears to have failed him in his efforts
to reproduce a foreign character. Even before the appearance of the
Oxford _Greek Testament_, which did not occur till 1763, rumours of the
failure of this undertaking had begun to circulate. Writing in 1763,
respecting a forthcoming _Greek Testament_ of his own, Bowyer says,
“Two or three quarto Editions on foot, one at Oxford, far advanced on
new types by Baskerville,—by the way, not good ones.”[554]
The appearance of the work in question[555] justified, to some extent,
the criticism. Regular as the Greek character is, it is stiff and
cramped, and, as Dibdin says, “like no Greek characters I have ever
seen.” Rowe Mores goes to the length of styling it “execrable”; and
Bowyer appears to have had it specially in mind when he said to Jackson
that the Greek letters commonly in use were no more like Greek than
English.
Be this as it may, Baskerville made no further excursions into the
foreign and learned languages, and, fortunately (as we consider) for
his reputation, confined his talents to the execution of the characters
of his native tongue, a branch of the art in which he had no rival.
The punches, matrices and some of the types of this interesting fount
are still preserved at Oxford,[556] and are the only relics in this
country of Baskerville’s letter-foundry. We are particularly glad,
therefore, to be able to present here, in addition to the annexed
facsimile from the _Specimen_ of 1768–70, a line printed from the
actual type cast by Baskerville in 1761:―
[Illustration]
[Illustration: 71. Baskerville’s Greek. (From the Oxford _Specimen_ of
1768–70.)]
{275}
Among the other important works which, says Mr. Nichols, “Baskerville
printed with more satisfaction to the literary world than emolument
to himself,” his _Paradise Lost_, in 4to, printed in 1758,[557] is of
signal merit and beauty. As a work of fine printing, it equals, if it
does not excel, the _Virgil_. “The type”, observes Hansard (who speaks
of it as a Pica instead of an English) “is manifestly an improvement
on the ‘slender and delicate’ mentioned by Mr. Dibdin; I should think
it, on the contrary, approaching to the _embonpoint_, and admirably
calculated by extending the size (if in exact proportion), for works of
the largest dimensions. The Italic possesses much room for admiration.
. . . This work will, in my opinion, bear a comparison, even to its
advantage, with those subsequently executed by the first typographer
of our age. There is a clearness, a soberness, a softness, and at the
same time a spirit, altogether harmonising, in Baskerville’s book,
that neither of the others with which I am comparing it, can, I think,
fairly claim.”[558]
In his preface to the _Paradise Lost_, Baskerville gives an interesting
account of his own labours and ambitions as a letter-founder. He says:―
“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 myself 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 honour 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 . . .
“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 . . . If {276} this performance (_i.e._, the _Milton_)
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 _Prayer
Book_, and a FOLIO BIBLE.”
Both these ambitions were in due time fulfilled. In 1758 Baskerville
had applied for the post of Printer to the University of Cambridge, an
office which he obtained, with permission to print the folio _Bible_,
and two editions of the _Common Prayer_ in three sizes. This learned
body, however, appear to have been influenced in the transaction more
by a wish to fill their own coffers than by a desire to promote the
interests of the Art; and the heavy premiums exacted from Baskerville
for the privilege thus accorded effectually deprived him of any
advantage whatever in the undertaking. He continued to hold this
unsatisfactory office till 1766.
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,[559] 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 two last, 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.[560]
[Illustration: 72. Baskerville’s English Roman and Italic. (From the
_Milton_, 1758.)]
It may be worth noting here that in point of body Baskerville appears
to {277} have followed an independent course; most of his bodies,
even the Pica, varying from the usual standards. The punches of the
Greek fount, preserved at Oxford, show marks of high finish, although
unnecessarily, as it seems to us, rounded in the stem. It is probable
that these and the other punches of his foundry were not his own
handiwork, but cut by skilled artists under his critical supervision.
Unfortunately, very little is known of the operations of the Birmingham
foundry as a trade undertaking. It is even doubtful whether, at first,
Baskerville supplied his types to any press but his own; indeed, the
activity of that press during the period when it was in the height
of its prosperity was such that it is unlikely its proprietor would
encumber himself with the duties of a letter-founder to the trade in
general.
The magnificent works[561] which between 1759 and 1772 continued to
issue from his press not only confirmed him in his reputation, but
raised his name to an unique position among the modern improvers of the
art. The paper, the type and the general execution of his works were
such as English readers had not hitherto been accustomed to, while the
disinterested enthusiasm with which, regardless of profit, he pursued
his ideal, fully merited the eulogy of the printer-poet who wrote:―
“O BASKERVILLE! the anxious wish was thine
Utility with beauty to combine;
To bid the o’erweening thirst of gain subside;
Improvement all thy care and all thy pride;
When BIRMINGHAM—for riots and for crimes
Shall meet the long reproach of future times,
Then shall she find amongst our honor’d race,
One name to save her from entire disgrace.”[562]
Baskerville’s third specimen sheet, undated, but probably issued
in 1762, is an exquisitely printed large folio on highly glazed
white paper. It completes the series of Roman and Italic displayed
in the former sheet with a Nonpareil, and the whole is surrounded
by an elegant light border. It is incomparably the most beautiful
type-specimen of its day, although it must be admitted that not a
little of its beauty is due to the brilliancy of the ink and the gloss
of the paper.
Despite the applause bestowed on him, and the acknowledged excellence
of his work, Baskerville failed to make his new business a paying one.
His letter {278} to Horace Walpole in 1762 best details the history of
his struggles and disappointments:―
“To the Hon’ble Horace Walpole, Esq., Member of Parliament, in
Arlington Street, London, this:
EASY HILL, BIRMINGHAM, 2 Nov. 1762.
“SIR,—As the Patron and Encourager of Arts, and particularly
that of Printing,[563] I have taken the Liberty of sending you a
Specimen of Mine, begun ten Years ago at the age of forty-seven,
and prosecuted ever since with the utmost Care and Attention, on
the strongest Presumption, that if I could fairly excel in this
divine Art, it would make my Affairs easy or at least give me
Bread. But alas! in both I was mistaken. The Booksellers do not
chuse to encourage Me, though I have offered them as low terms as
I could possibly live by; nor dare I attempt an Old Copy till a
Law Suit relating to that affair is determined.
“The University of Cambridge have given me a Grant to print their
8vo and 12mo _Common-Prayer Books_, but under such Shackles as
greatly hurt me. I pay them for the former twenty and for the
latter twelve pounds ten shillings the thousand; and to the
Stationers’ Company thirty-two pound for their permission to print
one edition of the _Psalms in Metre_ to the small _Prayer Book_;
add to this the great expense of Double and treble carriage, and
the inconvenience of a printing house an hundred Miles off. All
this Summer I have had nothing to print at Home. My folio _Bible_
is pretty far advanced at Cambridge, which will cost me near £2000
all hired at 5 per cent. If this does not sell, I shall be obliged
to sacrifice a small patrimony which brings me in £74 a year to
this business of Printing, which I am heartily tired of and repent
I ever attempted. It is surely a particular hardship, that I
should not get Bread in my own country (and it is too late to go
abroad) after having acquired the Reputation of excelling in the
most useful Art known to mankind; while everyone who excels as a
Player, Fiddler, Dancer, &c., not only lives in Affluence, but has
it in their power to save a Fortune.
“I have sent a few Specimens (same as the enclosed) to the Courts
of Russia and Denmark, and shall endeavour to do the same to
most of the Courts in Europe; in hopes of finding in some of
them a purchaser of the whole scheme, on the Condition of never
attempting another Type. I was saying this to a particular Friend,
who reproached me with not giving my own Country the Preference,
as it would (he was pleased to say) be a national Reproach to
lose it: I told him nothing but the greatest Necessity would put
me upon it; and even then I should resign it with the utmost
reluctance. He observed the Parliament had given a handsome
Premium for a great Medicine; and he doubted not, if My Affair
were properly brought before the House of Commons, but some Regard
would be Paid to it. I replied I durst not presume to Petition the
House, unless encouraged by some of the Members, who might do me
the honour to promote it; of which I saw not the least hopes or
probability. Thus, Sir, I have taken the Liberty of laying before
you my Affairs without the least Aggravation; and humbly hope your
patronage: To whom can I apply for {279} Protection, but the
Great who alone have it in their power to serve me? I rely on your
candour as a Lover of the Arts and to excuse this Presumption in
your most obedient and most humble servant
JOHN BASKERVILLE.
“P.S.—The folding of the Specimens will be taken out by laying
them for a short time between damped Papers. N.B.—The Ink,
Presses, Chases, Moulds for Casting, and all the apparatus for
Printing were made in my own shops.”[564]
The folio _Bible_[565] referred to in this letter has always been
regarded as Baskerville’s _magnum opus_, and is his most magnificent
as well as his most characteristic specimen. It duly appeared in
Cambridge in 1763, in a beautiful Great Primer type, fully meriting the
applause which it evoked. It had been preceded in 1760 by some very
elegant editions of the _Book of Common Prayer_,[566] all published at
Cambridge in his capacity of University printer.
After the publication of the _Bible_, Baskerville wearied of his
profession of printing, disheartened alike by the poor pecuniary
returns for his labours, and the unfriendly criticism pronounced
in various quarters upon his performances. 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.[567] 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.
That these strictures were not wholly the result of prejudice and
jealousy, a careful examination of Baskerville’s printed works in the
light of the modern {280} canons of fine printing will prove. Even his
warmest admirers, like Fournier,[568] tempered their praise with some
reservation; while hostile critics, like Mores, summarily denied him a
place among letter-cutters at all.[569]
Of the prejudice rife against Baskerville at this time, an amusing
anecdote is preserved in a letter of Benjamin Franklin to our printer,
dated 1760:―
“CRAVEN STREET, LONDON, 1760.
“DEAR SIR,—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 a 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 of
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 is himself an author), and yet never discovered this
painful disproportion in them, till he thought they were yours.
“I am, etc.,
“B. FRANKLIN.”[570]
This occasion for the above interesting letter, was an application
made by {281} Baskerville in 1760 to his friend, Dr. Franklin, to
assist him in London to sound the literati there respecting the
purchase of his types. This attempt failing, a few years later Dr.
Franklin undertook a similar good office in Paris,[571] and with a
similar result. “The French,” he wrote in 1767, “reduced by the war
of 1756 were so far from being able to pursue schemes of taste, that
they were unable to repair their public buildings, and suffered the
scaffolding to rot before them.”
Having lost all spirit for the printing business, Baskerville, about
1766, declined to pursue it except through the medium of a confidential
agent, and the following notice, issued about this period, announced
this decision to the public:―
“Robert Martin has agreed with Mr. Baskerville for the use of his
whole printing apparatus, with whom he has wrought as a journeyman
for ten years past. He therefore offers his services to print at
Birmingham for Gentlemen or Booksellers, on the most moderate
terms, who may depend on all possible care and elegance in the
execution. Samples, if necessary, may be seen on sending a line to
John Baskerville or Robert Martin.”[572]
After a retirement of three years, Baskerville resumed work in 1769,
completing between that period and the time of his death his fine
series of the 4to classics, which bear the marks of unabated genius
even in declining days; and suffice, had he printed nothing else, to
distinguish him as the first typographer of his time.
It would appear from a passage in a letter of Franklin’s in reference
to the fine edition of _Shaftesbury’s Characteristics_, published in
1773 (4to), that, in that year, Baskerville contemplated some further
development of his type-founding business.[573] His press, at any rate,
seems to have continued active till that date, and even later; although
it is doubtful whether the latest works bearing his imprint received
his personal oversight.
He died on January 8, 1775. Notwithstanding the poor success of his
printing enterprise, he left behind him a fortune of £12,000, which,
as he had no heir, went, together with the stock and goodwill of his
business, to his widow.[574] {282}
Of Baskerville’s personal character, a biographer observes: “In
private life, he was a humourist, idle in the extreme; but his
invention was 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 stately as a ship of the line. During the twenty-five
last years of his life, though then in his decline, he retained the
singular traces of a handsome man. If he exhibited a peevish temper,
we may consider that good nature and intense thinking are not always
found together. Taste accompanied him through the different walks of
agriculture, architecture, and the fine arts. Whatever passed through
his fingers bore the living marks of John Baskerville.”[575]
A less pleasing sketch of his character is given by Mark Noble in his
_Biographical History of England_:—“I have very often”, he says, “been
with my father at his 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 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 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.”[576]
Professing a total disbelief of the Christian religion, he ordered that
his remains should be buried in a tomb in his own grounds, prepared by
himself for the purpose, with an epitaph[577] expressing his contempt
for the superstition which {283} the bigoted called Religion. Here,
accordingly, his body was buried upright, and here it remained,
although the building that contained it was destroyed by the Birmingham
riots of 1791. About half a century after his death his body was
exhumed and exhibited for some time in a shop in Birmingham. Its final
resting-place is to this day a matter of debate.
There is a portrait of Baskerville by Exteth, in the possession
of the Messrs. Longman, and another in the possession of the Rev.
Dr. Caldecott. An engraving of the latter is given in Hansard’s
_Typographia_; and there is a copperplate from the same portrait
(unpublished), at the present time in the collection of Mr. Timmins of
Birmingham.
Mrs. Baskerville[578], on succeeding to her husband’s property,
declined to continue the printing business, although continuing that of
letter-founding; and thus advertised her intention to the public:―
“Mrs. Baskerville, being about to decline business as a printer,
purposes disposing of the whole of her apparatus in that branch,
comprehending, among other articles, all of them perfect in their
kind, a large and full assortment of the most beautiful types,
with the completest printing presses, hitherto known in England.
She begs leave to inform the publick, at the same time, that she
continues the business of Letter-founding, in all its parts, with
the same care and accuracy that was formerly observed by Mr.
Baskerville. Those gentlemen who are inclined to encourage so
pleasing an improvement may, by favouring her with their commands,
be now supplied with Baskerville’s elegant types at no higher
expence than the prices already established in the trade.”[579]
_April 6, 1775._
The following further advertisement intimates that two years later the
typefounding business was still carried on under the same management:―
“The late Mr. Baskerville, having taken some pains to establish
and perfect a Letter-foundry for the more readily casting of
Printing-types for sale, and as the undertaking was finished
but a little before his death, it is now become necessary for
his widow, Mrs. Baskerville, to inform all Printers that she
continues the same business, and has now ready for sale, a large
stock of types, of most sizes, cast with all possible care, and
dressed with the utmost accuracy. She hopes the acknowledged
partiality of the world, in regard to the peculiar beauty of Mr.
Baskerville’s types, in the works he has published, will render it
quite unnecessary here to say anything to recommend them—only that
she is determined to attend to the undertaking with all care and
diligence; and to the end that so useful an improvement may become
as extensive as possible, and notwithstanding the extraordinary
hardness and durability of these types above all others, she
will conform to sell them at the same prices with other Letter
founders.” _Feb. 25, 1777._ {284}
Notwithstanding Mrs. Baskerville’s avowed intention of continuing the
business, many attempts had been made, and were still made, to dispose
of the foundry. It was offered to the Universities and declined;
and the London booksellers preferred the types of Caslon and his
apprentices.[580] The stock lay a dead weight till 1779, when the whole
was purchased by Beaumarchais for the Société Litteraire-Typographique,
for the sum of £3,700, and transferred to France.
Much blame and even contempt was bestowed at the time on the bad
taste and unpatriotic spirit of the English nation in thus allowing
the materials of this famous press to go out of the country.[581] _De
gustibus non est disputandum._ Deprived of the master-hand of their
designer, the types which startled the world into admiration in the
_Virgil_ of 1757, had lost their magic by 1779; and it seems hardly
reasonable to blame the printers of this country for preferring the
sterling types of Caslon and Jackson, in which works as beautiful were
being produced, and by far simpler methods than those employed by the
Birmingham genius. Nor does it appear that after the purchase by the
French there was any general feeling of regret in this country at the
opportunity missed. It is, however, a fact that for some important
works produced towards the close of the century—particularly those of
Bulmer’s press—it was considered an advantage to secure the services of
artists of the Birmingham school, both in the formation of the types
and the execution of the press-work. As the pioneer of fine printing
in England, Baskerville deserves, and will receive the grateful
approbation of all lovers of the art. But it would be idle to say that
he was not speedily matched and even surpassed by the performance of
others, or that his types, had they remained in this country, would
have been more valuable on account of their intrinsic excellence than
of their historical interest.
That the French were well satisfied with their bargain, may be gathered
from the following letter quoted by Nichols, dated Paris, August 8th,
1780:―
“The English language and learning are so cultivated in France,
and so eagerly learned, that the best Authors of Great Britain are
now reprinting in this Metropolis: Shakespeare, Addison, Pope,
Johnson, Hume, and Robertson, are to be published here very soon.
Baskerville’s types, which were bought it seems for a trifle, to
the eternal disgrace of Englishmen, are to be made use of for the
purpose of propagating the English Language in this country.”[582]
{285}
Nichols himself adds, after deploring the comparative failure of
Baskerville, to receive appreciation in his native land: “We must
admire, if we do not imitate the taste and economy of the French
nation, who, brought by the British arms in 1762 to the verge of ruin,
rising above distress, were able, in seventeen years, to purchase
Baskerville’s elegant types, refused by his own country, and to expend
an hundred thousand pounds in poisoning the principles of mankind by
printing the _Works of Voltaire_.”
This great work, for the express purpose of printing which
Baskerville’s types were procured, was thus announced to the English
public in 1782[583]:―
“A complete edition of the _Works of Voltaire_, printed by
subscription, with the types of Baskerville.
“This work, the most extensive and magnificent that ever was
printed, is now in the press at Fort Kehl, near Strasburgh, a
free place, subject to no restraint or imprimatur, and will be
published towards the close of the present year. It will never
be on sale. Subscribers only can have copies. Each set is to be
numbered, and a particular number appropriated to each subscriber
at the time of subscribing. As the sets to be worked off are
limited to a fixed and small number, considering the great demand
of all Europe, those who wish to be possessed of so valuable a
work must be early in their application, lest they be shut out by
the subscriptions being previously filled. Voltaire’s Manuscripts
and Port-Folios, besides his Works already published, cost 12,000
guineas. This and other expenses attending the publication,
will lay the Editors under an advance of £100,000 sterling. The
public may from thence form a judgment of the extraordinary care
that will be taken to make this edition a lasting monument of
typographical elegance and grandeur,” etc. _June 4, 1782._
The “proposals” were accompanied by two pages of specimens of the type.
Of this famous edition of _Voltaire_ an interesting account is given in
Lomenie’s _Beaumarchais et ses Temps_.[584] The Society in whose name
Beaumarchais undertook the work consisted of himself alone. Besides
the Voltaire MSS. and the Baskerville types, he bought and set to work
three paper-mills in the Vosges, and after much difficulty secured
the old fort at Kehl as a neutral ground on which to establish in
security his vast typographical undertaking. The enterprise was one
involving labour, time and cost vastly beyond his expectations, and his
correspondence with his manager at Kehl presents an almost pathetic
picture of his efforts to grapple with the difficulties that beset his
task. “How can we promise,” he wrote in 1780, “in the early months
of {286} 1782 an edition which has neither hearth nor home in March
1780? The paper-mills have to be made, the type to be founded, the
printing press to be put up, and the establishment to be formed.” And
on another occasion he writes: “Here am I, obliged to learn my letters
at paper-making, printing and bookselling.”
It was not until 1784 that Volume One appeared; and the whole work in
two editions was not completed till 1790,[585] by which time France was
in the throes of the Revolution, and little likely to heed the literary
exploits even of one of her most talented sons. Of the 15,000 copies
printed, only 2,000 found subscribers; and after the dissolution of the
establishment at Kehl[586] (where, besides, he printed an edition of
_Rousseau_ and a few other works) all the benefit Beaumarchais received
from his enterprise was a mountain of waste-paper.
The final destination of Baskerville’s types is shrouded in mystery.
Most writers assert that the printing establishment at Kehl was
entirely destroyed at the commencement of the French Revolution,
and many suggest that the types performed their last service in the
shape of bullets. Plausible as this story is, it is disproved by the
existence of four works of Alfieri, all bearing the imprint, _dalla
Tipografia di Kehl, co’ caratteri di Baskerville_, and dated severally
1786, 1795, 1800 and 1809.[587] These works, to whose existence no
writer on Baskerville appears hitherto to have called attention, bear
the strongest internal evidence of the accuracy of their claims, and
thus enable us to trace the survival of these famous types to a date
twenty years later than that at which they are commonly supposed to
have perished. In England, some of Baskerville’s types are said to have
been in use in the office of Messrs. Harris, in Liverpool, in 1820; and
seven years later, we find a work printed by Thomas White, of Crane
Court, London, for Pickering, claiming to be “with the types of John
Baskerville”.[588] But though a fount or two of the types may have
survived, all search as to the ultimate fate of the punches or matrices
is baffled. They may still exist, {287} neglected, in the dusty
drawers of some foreign press or foundry.[589] If so, it is to be hoped
that their discovery may in due time reward the patience of those whose
ambition it is to recover for their native land these precious relics
of the most brilliant of all the English letter-founders.
LIST OF BASKERVILLE’S SPECIMENS.
No date. A Specimen by John Baskerville, of Birmingham, in the
county of Warwick, Letter Founder and Printer. 4to sheet. (1752?)
. . . . (S. T.)
No date. A Specimen by John Baskerville of Birmingham. 4to sheet.
(1757?) . . . . (Althorp.)
No date. A Specimen by John Baskerville of Birmingham, Letter
Founder and Printer. (1758?). Broadside. . . . . (S. T.)
No date. A Specimen by John Baskerville of Birmingham. (1762?).
Folio. . . . . (S. T.)
[Illustration]
{288}
[Illustration]