JOSEPH AND EDMUND FRY, 1764.
This foundry, first known as Fry and Pine’s, had its origin in Bristol
in the year 1764.
Mr. Joseph Fry, a prominent and enterprising Bristolian, was the son
of Mr. John Fry, and was born in the year 1728. He entered the medical
profession, where, says a biographer,[611] “his affable, courteous
manners and sound Christian principles soon secured to him a large
practice amongst the highest class of his fellow citizens. Possessing
uncommon energy and activity of mind, he was led to take a part in many
new scientific undertakings, actuated more by the desire to be useful
to society and advance the arts than by any hope of individual profit.”
This spirit of enterprise induced him, in the year 1764, to turn his
attention to letter-founding, which, though hardly to be called a new
scientific undertaking, was at least a novel industry for a provincial
city. The success of Baskerville’s foundry at Birmingham, at that time
in the height of its celebrity, was undoubtedly an incentive to the
adventurers of Bristol, whose first founts were avowedly cut in close
imitation of those famous models.
[Illustration: 73A. Joseph Fry and Dr. Edmund Fry. From Silhouettes in
the possession of Francis Fry, Esq., of Bristol.]
William Pine, Mr. Fry’s partner, was a practical printer of some note
in his native city. He was the first printer of the _Bristol Gazette_,
and carried on a considerable business at his premises in Wine
Street. The new foundry was {299} attached to his office, and its
productions may be traced in several works which issued from his press
between the years 1764 and 1770.[612] Messrs. Fry and Pine’s manager
was one Isaac Moore, who (Rowe Mores informs us) was originally an
ingenious whitesmith of Birmingham before he removed to Bristol. The
practical superintendence of the foundry, if not the actual cutting
of its punches, devolved on him; and his services appear to have been
acknowledged by his admission into the partnership at an early stage of
the undertaking, the business being carried on in his name.
Renouard mentions a _Specimen by Isaac Moore, Bristol_, in 1768,
of which he possessed a copy mounted on linen,[613] and which he
describes as displaying “caractères assez bien gravés, et imitant
ceux de Baskerville.” If this was, as it would appear from the title,
issued at Bristol, we must conclude that the removal of the foundry
to the metropolis took place in the same year, as there exists in the
Sohmian Collection at Stockholm, where it was recently discovered by
Mr. W. Blades, a broadside _Specimen by Isaac Moore and Co. in Queen
Street, near Upper Moorfields, London_, showing the Roman series from
five-line to Brevier, bearing the same date. Whether the two specimens
are the same or not, it is hardly likely that their contents could
have varied much during the brief interval. Two years later, however,
the progress of the undertaking was announced by the issue of a fresh
broadside sheet containing the complete series of Romans, cut after the
Baskerville models, from eight-line to Pearl, with Italics to most of
the founts, besides a fair display of flowers. The general appearance
of the letters is elegant, especially in the larger sizes.
Appended to the specimen, in the form of a postscript, is the following
address to the public (the first of a series of florid effusions which
characterised the specimens of this foundry), in which the proprietors
announce the principles on which their venture is to be conducted,
and refer with satisfaction to the success already achieved by their
productions:―
“The Proprietors of the above Foundery having nearly compleated
all the Roman and Italic Founts, desire with great Deference, to
lay this Specimen before the Trade; and intreat the Curious and
critical, before any decisive Judgement be passed, on the Merits
or Demerits of the Performance, to make a minute Examination
and Comparison of the respective letters and founts of each
Size, with the same Letters and Founts of the most respectable
Founders in the Kingdom; For as all Letters, whether Roman or
Italic, bear a great Similitude to each other, to apprehend the
peculiar Beauty or Deformity of them are only to be discovered
by such a Comparison. In making {300} which they hope the
Candid and Judicious will set aside the Influence of Custom and
Prejudice (those Great Barriers against Improvement) and attend
to Propriety, Elegance and Mathematical Proportion. And as these
have been objects particularly attended to in the Course of the
Work, they apprehend it will appear on such a Disquisition, that
all the above sizes bear a greater Likeness to each other, than
those of any other Founder. They have been already favoured with
the Encouragement and Approbation of several very respectable
printers, who have wrought off many large Editions on their
Founts, which have been Experienced to wear extremely well; owing
to the Letter being clearly and deeply cut and to the Goodness of
the Metal, which they make of an Extraordinary Composition; the
Singular Advantage of which cannot but be obvious. Therefore hope
that others will likewise make Trial of them, as they doubt not
but they also will find it greatly to their Satisfaction.”[614]
It is doubtful whether the encouragement accorded to the new foundry on
its first establishment in the metropolis came up to the expectations
of the proprietors; and a circular issued shortly afterwards by two
of the partners, suggests that some fillip was deemed necessary to
awaken a more extended patronage of the concern. This curious document
is entitled _Proposals for discovering a very great Improvement which
William Pine, printer of Bristol, and Isaac Moore, Letter Founder,
in Queen Street, Upper Moorfields, London, have made in the Art of
Printing, both in the Construction of the Press and in the Manner of
Beating and Pulling_, and publicly offers the secret of the invention
(the precise nature of which is not apparent) to any customer of the
new foundry ordering type to the value of ten pounds and upwards.[615]
{301}
How far this ingenuous offer had the effect of stimulating the type
business is not recorded; but the proprietors were forced before long
to recognise the desirability of adopting other and surer methods for
gaining the popular favour.
Although Luckombe, writing in 1770,[616] mentions Moore along with
Caslon and Jackson, as one of the three London founders, the same
authority makes a decidedly disparaging reference to his types[617]; a
circumstance which may be accounted for by the then growing prejudice
amongst metropolitan printers against the Baskerville form of letter
adopted by the new foundry.
Representations of a similar nature having been made from several
influential quarters, it became evident to the proprietors that if
they were to retain public favour at all, it must be by adapting
themselves to public taste, and abandoning the formal, delicate models
of Baskerville for the more serviceable, dashing characters of Caslon.
This laborious task occupied several years in completion. Meanwhile the
original founts were not discarded.
The printing office connected with the foundry distinguished itself in
the interval by the production of two highly interesting _Bibles_, the
one a folio, published in 1774, and the other an 8vo, in five volumes,
published 1774–6.[618] Both are elegantly printed in the clear Great
Primer letter shown in the 1770 Specimen; the latter being in long
lines specially for the use of the aged. The general appearance of the
folio edition compares not unfavourably with the Baskerville _Bible_ of
1772.
In 1774, Pine printed at Bristol a very neat _Bible_ in the Pearl type
of the foundry, “being”, says the preface, “the smallest a Bible was
ever printed with, and made on purpose for this work.”[619] {302}
Moore’s connection with the business appears to have terminated in
1776, after which the style of the firm became J. Fry and Co., who in
the following year issued, in their own name, reprints of the folio
and octavo _Bibles_ above referred to.[620] No specimen-sheet of their
types appeared till seven years later, by which time Mr. Pine had also
withdrawn from the business.[621] He continued to print the _Bristol
Gazette_ in Wine Street, Bristol, till the time of his death, which
occurred in 1803, at the age of sixty-four years.
Left to himself, Mr. Fry, in the year 1782, admitted his sons Edmund
and Henry into partnership, under whose supervision the work of
re-cutting the Romans of the foundry made active progress.
Edmund Fry, probably the most learned letter-founder of his day, had,
like his father, been educated for the medical profession, and had
taken his doctor’s degree. But the infirmity of deafness prevented him
from following that walk in life, and he abandoned it for typefounding,
applying himself to that pursuit, not only with the enthusiasm of an
ardent philologist, but also with considerable natural ability for
conducting the practical operations of the art.
The year of his entry into the business (1782) was signalised by an
important event in the typefounding world—the sale of James’s foundry.
This event has been fully alluded to elsewhere,[622] but it is
interesting to note that the Frys were considerable purchasers on the
occasion, securing amongst other items the chief part of the “learned”
and foreign matrices, for which that collection was noted.
The following list of their purchases forms an interesting connecting
link between the old and the new letter-foundries; particularly as
either punches or matrices of all the founts (and in some cases both)
still exist, many of the latter being to this day in occasional use:―
{303}
_Blacks._[623]―
English [A.]
Pica [A.]
Small Pica [A.]
Long Primer [A.]
Brevier [G.]
Nonpareil [G.]
_Hebrew._―
English [A?]
Small Pica
Long Primer (or Bourgeois)
Brevier
_Rabbinical Hebrew._―
Small Pica [A.]
Brevier [A.]
Nonpareil [A.]
_Greek._―
Alexandrian [G.]
Great Primer [G.]
Another [R?]
Pica [R?]
_Arabic._―
Great Primer [A?]
_Irish._―
Small Pica [M.] [A.]
_Ethiopic._―
English [P.] [A.]
Pica
_Samaritan._―
English [P.] [G.]
Long Primer
_Scriptorial._―
Pica [G.]
English [G.]
_Union Pearl._―
Double Pica [G.]
_Court Hand._―
English [G.]
_Flowers._—Nearly all
The business was shortly afterwards removed to Worship Street, hard by
the old premises; and here, in 1785, the first specimen-book of the
foundry was issued. This volume exhibits the greater part of the new
Caslon series of Romans, which the proprietors in their “Advertisement”
frankly admit to have been cut in the closest possible imitation of
that ingenious artist’s models.[624] It includes also two pages of
Hebrew type. Later in the same year appeared a large broadside sheet
printed both sides, containing an epitome of the specimen-book, and
displaying, besides the Arabic, Hebrews, Greek and Samaritan {304}
recently acquired at James’s sale,one or two fresh Hebrew founts
lately finished. Considerable variety is thrown into this and later
specimens by showing each size not only on its own body, but upon the
bodies next larger and next smaller,—short descending sorts being
specially cut for the latter. The broadside also includes a Diamond
Roman, the first in England, for which the founders claim that it is
“the smallest letter in the world,” adding subsequently that it “gets
in considerably more than the famous Dutch Diamond.”
[Illustration: 74. The Alexandrian Greek (formerly Grover’s),
rejustified by Dr. Fry, 1786. (From the original matrices.)
74A. Two-line Great Primer Hebrew, cut by Dr. Fry, _circa_ 1785. (From
the original matrices.)]
Another Specimen followed in 1786, showing several more of the new
founts, and including seven pages of Orientals. This volume is
dedicated to the Prince of Wales, and is prefaced by an address to
the public of the usual self-laudatory character, with a somewhat
aggressive reference to the rival foundry at Chiswell Street.[625]
In the following year Mr. Joseph Fry retired from the business.
Besides founding a chocolate business in his native city, and becoming
a considerable {305} partner in the new Bristol Porcelain Works,
he had added to his other enterprises that of a Chemical Works at
Battersea, and later still had established some important Soap Works in
partnership with Mr. Alderman Fripp of Bristol.
He did not long survive his retirement, and died, after a few days’
illness, on March 29, 1787, aged fifty-nine, greatly respected. He
was buried in the Friends’ burial-ground at the Friars, Bristol. A
silhouette portrait of him is to be seen in Mr. Hugh Owen’s _Two
Centuries of Ceramic Art in Bristol_, where also many interesting
details of his life are to be found.[626]
In 1787 was issued a _Specimen of Printing Types by Edmund Fry and
Co._—the first mention of the firm under its new title. This was
followed in the next year by a full specimen of the foundry, with
a preface and dedication similar to those of the 1786 edition, but
showing several fresh additions, particularly among the Orientals,
which occupy twelve pages. Of the latter, several founts had been cut
by Dr. Fry himself.
The specimen of 1787 was included in the _Printer’s Grammar_[627]
published in that year—a work which makes considerable reference
to the Frys’ foundry, whose specimens and standards are used in
illustration of the various subjects dealt with. The introductory note
to the specimen gives the following account of the then condition of
the foundry. It “was begun in 1764 and has been continued with great
perseverance and assiduity, at a very considerable expence. The plan
on which they first sat out, was an improvement of the Types of the
late Mr. Baskerville of Birmingham, eminent for his ingenuity in his
line, as also for his curious Printing, many proofs of which are extant
and much admired: But the shape of Mr. Caslon’s Type has since been
copied by them with such accuracy as not to be distinguished from
those of that celebrated Founder. They have at present Twenty-seven
complete Founts in punches and matrices of Roman and Italic, besides
many sizes of larger Letter cast in Sand; also an elegant assortment of
Blacks, with Hebrews and Greeks, and many other Orientals: They have
also a greater variety of Flowers than are to be met with in any other
Foundery in this Kingdom.”
The premises at Worship Street becoming inadequate for the type and
printing business combined, Dr. Fry took a plot of ground opposite
Bunhill Fields in Chiswell Street—then open fields—and there built
the foundry which gave its name to Type Street. To these premises the
business was removed in 1788; and the Specimen of that year dates from
the Type Street Foundry. {306}
Among many elegant works printed at this time in the types of this
foundry was the Rev. Mr. Homer’s fine edition of the classics,[628]
printed by Millar Ritchie,[629] in which the somewhat rare compliment
was paid the founder, of adding his name to the list of typographers
engaged on the work.
The printing business was about the same time dissociated from the
type-founding, and remained at Worship Street under the management of
Henry Fry, who styled his office the “Cicero Press.”[630]
In the year 1794 Dr. Fry took Mr. Isaac Steele into partnership, and
the specimen of this year, under the title of Edmund Fry and Isaac
Steele, Letter-Founders to the Prince of Wales, shows a marked advance
on its predecessors. Besides the additional Romans, it includes
the Irish fount originally cut by Moxon in 1680, and is further
supplemented by a considerable display of “Metal Cast Ornaments,
curiously adjusted to paper”, of which a specimen had already appeared
in the preceding year. Rude as many of these cuts now appear, they were
much affected at the time, while a few of their number bear evident
testimony to the wholesome revolution then being effected in the art of
engraving by Mr. Bewick. A distinct improvement in the same direction
may be traced in the series of “Head and Fable Cuts” for _Dilworth’s
Spelling Book_, a specimen of which was issued shortly afterwards.[631]
In 1798 Dr. Fry put forth proposals for publishing the important
philological work on which he had for sixteen years been engaged,
and which, in the following year, was issued under the title of
_Pantographia_, with a dedication to Sir Joseph Banks, President of the
Royal Society. {307}
This important work,[632] which displays great learning and research,
was favourably received. It exhibits upwards of 200 alphabets, amongst
which are 18 varieties of the Chaldee and no less than 39 of the Greek.
Many of the letters were cut by the author expressly for the work,
under the direction or with the advice of some of the most eminent
scholars of the day, and not a few subsequently found a place among the
specimens of the foundry.
In 1799 Mr. George Knowles was admitted into partnership, and the firm
became Fry, Steele and Co.
A new revolution in the public taste necessitated at this stage the
abandonment of the Caslon Old Style faces, and the adoption of the
modern cut Roman letter then coming into vogue; and the specimens
between 1800 and 1808 are interesting as marking the gradual
accomplishment of this task. The specimen of 1803 showed the first of
the new Romans, and in 1808 Stower’s _Printer’s Grammar_ contained the
series almost complete.[633]
The new style may have been considered an improvement at the time, but
a later judgment has endorsed the regret with which Dr. Fry and others
witnessed the then entire abandonment of the time-honoured and graceful
Elzevir-cut characters of the first Caslon.
Naturally conservative in most matters pertaining to his art, Dr. Fry
viewed with the utmost displeasure another innovation of the same
period, in the introduction of ornamental type; and to the end of
his career he strenuously resisted the “pernicious fashion,” as he
styled it; yielding only to the extent of one small series of flowered
titling-letters, which crept into his later specimens. But, although
opposed to ornaments in this form, the Type Street specimens show no
lack of flowers, and Stower’s book includes a profuse specimen of these
ornaments, arranged in fantastic designs by Mr. Hazard, the printer, of
Bath.[634]
Both Mr. Steele and Mr. Knowles appear to have retired about the
year 1808, when Dr. Fry assumed the sole management of the business.
In the specimen of 1816 he styles himself Letter Founder to the King
and Prince {308} Regent. Soon afterwards, his own health failing, he
admitted his son, Mr. Windover Fry, into partnership, and the firm
became Edmund Fry and Son.
The subsequent specimens of the foundry are not marked by any special
feature of interest, if we except the introduction of M. Firmin Didot’s
Great Primer Script in 1821, containing upwards of sixty lower-case
sorts, in a system of ligatures and connectors so elaborate as to
necessitate the printing of a scheme to facilitate their composition,
and the manufacture of special cases to hold them.
Dr. Fry’s philological studies had not ceased with the publication of
_Pantographia_, and he was constantly adding to the stock of punches
and matrices of the “learned” languages, in which his foundry was
already rich. His excellence as a cutter of Oriental punches led to
his selection by the University of Cambridge[635] to execute several
founts for that learned body; in addition to which he was employed to
produce types for the works of the British and Foreign Bible Society,
and similar biblical publications.
His most important effort in this direction was an English Syriac for
Bagster’s _Polyglot_, with the points cast on the body, the entire
fount consisting of nearly 400 matrices.
The specimen of 1824, which was issued both in octavo and (more
sumptuously) in quarto, for presentation, signalised the completion
of his efforts in this department, and at the same time notified that
the name of the foundry had been changed—not inappropriately—to the
Polyglot Foundry.
It is to be regretted that Dr. Fry’s energy in one particular branch
of his art, congenial as it was to his own tastes, did not turn out
lucrative from a business point of view; and the last few years of his
career as a type-founder were not prosperous. His latest specimen was a
broadside sheet of Newspaper founts in 1827.
In the same year he produced a raised type for the blind, under the
following circumstances:—The Scotch Society of Arts, anxious to promote
the welfare of the blind, and desirous to determine, among the many
systems at that time proposed, which was the most suitable method of
printing for their instruction, offered a gold medal of the value of
£20 for the best communication on the subject. Twenty designs were sent
in in 1833, of which Dr. Fry’s was the only one retaining the ordinary
alphabetical characters. His specimen consisted of large and small
square “sanseriff” capitals working in combination, with no deviation
from the regular form. The committee occupied four years in arriving
at a decision; employing the time in corresponding with and eliciting
{309} the opinion of all the chief persons interested and experienced
in the education of the blind, in reference to the various designs.
Amongst others they received a long communication from the Rev. W.
Taylor of York, who commended Dr. Fry’s system, approving specially of
the absence of a “lower-case” letter.[636] The report was published May
31st, 1837, awarding the medal to Dr. Fry, who, however, was at that
time no more, his death having occurred two years previously.
The following summary of the contents of the Polyglot Foundry, as
far as its foreign and rare founts were concerned, is taken from the
Specimen Book of 1824, and corresponds closely to the list given in
Hansard’s _Typographia_ in the following year. With the exception of
the founts purchased at James’ sale in 1782 (which are distinguished
by the initials), most of the characters were cut by, or under the
direction of, Dr. Fry himself.
DR. FRY’S FOUNDRY.
_Arabic._―
Great Primer [J?]
Great Primer, No. 2.
English.
_Amharic._―
English.
_Ethiopic._―
English [P.][A.][J.]
English, No. 2.
Pica. [J.]
_German._―
Long Primer.
_Greek._―
Double Pica.
Great Primer.
English.
Pica.
Pica, No. 2.
Small Pica.
Long Primer.
Long Primer, No. 2.
Brevier.
Nonpareil.
_Greek Alexandrian._―
Pica. [G.][J.]
_Guzerattee._―
Great Primer.
Long Primer.
_Hebrew._―
2-line Great Primer.
2-line English.
Double Pica with points.
English with points.
Pica.
Small Pica.
Long Primer.
Bourgeois.
Brevier.
Nonpareil.
_Hebrew Rabbinical._―
Small Pica [A.][J.]
Brevier [A.][J.]
Nonpareil. [A.][J.]
_Irish._―
Pica.
Small Pica [M.][A.][J.]
Small Pica, No. 2.
_Malabaric._―
English.
Pica.
_Russian._―
Double Pica.
_Samaritan._―
Pica [P.][G.][J.]
Long Primer [J.]
_Saxon._―
Double Pica.
Great Primer.
English.
Pica.
Small Pica.
Long Primer.
Brevier. {310}
_Syriac._―
English.
Long Primer.
_Music._―
Large Plein Chant.
Small Plein Chant.
Psalm.
_Blacks._―
4-line.
2-line Great Primer.
2-line English.
Double Pica.
Great Primer.
English, No. 1. [A.][J.]
English, No. 2.
Pica, No. 1.
Pica, No. 2. [A.][J.]
Small Pica.
Long Primer. [A.][J.]
Brevier.[637]
In 1828, being now of an advanced age, and after 46 years’ incessant
labour, Dr. Fry decided to dispose of his foundry; and a circular was
issued announcing the fact to the public. This document, throwing as
it does considerable light on the history of the Type Street Foundry,
is interesting enough to quote at length. After enumerating generally
the contents of the foundry and stating the conditions of sale, Dr. Fry
remarks:
“The Substructure of this Establishment was laid about the year
1764; commencing with improved imitations of Baskerville’s founts,
of which every size was completed, from the largest down to the
Diamond: but they did not meet the encouraging approbation of the
Printers, whose offices generally, throughout the kingdom, were
stored from the London and Glasgow Founderies with Types of the
form introduced by the celebrated William Caslon, early in the
last century; chiefly from the admired Dutch models, which gained
so much credit to the Elzevirs of Amsterdam, Leyden, &c.
“By the recommendation, therefore, of several of the most
respectable Printers of the Metropolis, Doctor Fry, the
proprietor, commenced his imitation of the Chiswell Street
Foundery, which he successfully finished throughout all it’s
various sizes, at a vast expense, and with very satisfactory
encouragement, during the completion of it. At which period a
rude, pernicious, and most unclassical innovating System was
commenced, which, in a short time was followed by the most
injurious and desolating ravages on the property of every
Letter Founder and Printer in the kingdom, by the introduction
of fancy letters of various anomalous forms, with names as
appropriate—disgraceful in a Profession, once held so _Sacred_,
as to have it’s operations confined to consecrated Buildings, and
those of the highest class.
“The Baskerville and Caslon imitations, all completed with
Accents, Fractions, &c., were, in consequence of this revolution,
laid by for ever; and many thousand pounds weight of new letter
in Founts, estimated on the average at selling prices, at 2_s._
6_d._ per pound, were taken from the shelves, and carried to the
melting-pot to be recast into Types, no doubt, in many instances,
more beautiful; but no instance has occurred to the attentive
observation of the Proprietor of this Foundery, where any Founts
of book letter on the present system, have been found equal in
service, or {311} really so agreeable to the reader, as the
true _Caslon_-shaped Elzevir Types; and this is the undisguised
sentiment of many judicious Printers.
“When that eminent Printer, the late William Bowyer, gave
instructions to Joseph Jackson to cut his beautiful Pica Greek, he
used to say “Those in common use were no more Greek than they were
English.” Were he now living, it is likely he would not have any
reason to alter that opinion.
“The Greeks of this Foundery were many of them made in Type
Street, copied from those of the celebrated Foulis of Glasgow; and
there are two, a Pica, and a Long Primer, on the Porsonian plan.
The Codex Alexandrinus was purchased at James’ Sale in 1782.[638]
“The Hebrews were also chiefly cut by Dr. Fry, subject to the
direction and approbation of the most learned Hebraists.
“The two Arabics,[639] Great Primer and English, were cut from
the original drawings of, and under the personal direction of Dr.
Wilkins, Oriental Librarian to the East India Company; and have no
rival either in beauty or correctness.
“The Syriac[640] has been made within the last two years, with all
it’s vowel points, reduced to an English body, from the Double
Pica of the eminent Assemann’s edition of Ludolph’s Testament.
“The English, No. 1, and Pica Ethiopics—the Pica and Long Primer
Samaritans, were purchased at James’s sale. The other Orientals,
viz. two Malabarics—the Amharic—Ethiopic, No. 3, and Guzerattee,
were all cut at this Foundery. As was the fine collection of
Blacks, or pointed Gothics, except the English, No. 1,—Pica,
No. 2,—Long Primer, No. 1,—and Brevier, which were collected by
the late John James. There is good authority for believing that
this Pica Black, No. 2, was once the property of {312} William
Caxton[641]; Doctor Fry having recut for a reprint of a work
published by the celebrated man, all the contractions and accented
letters exhibited in the Specimen Book.
“The Occidentals, as termed by Moxon, Mores, and others, viz. the
Saxons, Hibernians,[642] German, and Russian, were also produced
at this Foundery. As were the two Plein Chants, and the Psalm
Music.
“The Great Primer Script, which, it must be acknowledged, is the
_Ne plus ultra_ of every effort of the Letter Founder in imitation
of writing, was made for the Proprietor by the celebrated Firmin
Didot, at Paris; the Matrices are of Steel, and the impressions
from the Punches sunk in _inlaid Silver !_[643]
“In taking leave of a Profession, which has for many years
engaged his whole attention, the Proprietor begs to convey,
through this channel, the high sense of obligation he hopes to
retain during his life, for the great encouragement with which
he has been favoured for so long a period; as well as for the
generous assistance and advice of many of his learned Friends, in
the _getting up_, and accurate completion of various undertakings.
It is also with much gratification, that he can look back and
recall to recollection, that he has carefully followed their
advices, in not admitting into {313} his Foundery any article
degrading or disgraceful, or unbecoming the dignity of that Art,
which deserves to be looked up to and revered as the ‘Head of the
republic of letters:’—claiming Permission to recommend to his
Successor and Contemporaries, the steady pursuit of that plan
which will secure the reputation of the _once Sacred_ Profession,
and restore to it the honourable Character it obtained several
Centuries ago, of
“ARS ARTIUM OMNIUM CONSERVATRIX.”
“_Polyglot Letter Foundery, 2nd month 14th, 1828._”
The foundry met with a purchaser in Mr. William Thorowgood, of Fann
Street, to whose premises the entire stock was removed in 1829, where
it now forms part of the Fann Street Foundry.
Dr. Fry retired to his residence at Stratford Green, and subsequently
removed to Dalby Terrace, City Road, where he died Dec. 22, 1835.[644]
He was an old Member of the Stationers’ Company. In private life he was
a man of genial disposition. A portrait of him, painted by Frederique
Boileau, was exhibited in the Caxton Exhibition of 1877 by his son, the
late Arthur Fry, and an excellent silhouette is also in possession of
the family of the late Mr. Francis Fry, F.S.A., of Bristol, to whom we
are indebted for our copy.
LIST OF SPECIMENS, 1768–1827.
1768. A specimen by Isaac Moore, Bristol, 1768. Broadside. . . . .
(Renouard, _Cat._ ii, 310.)
1768. A specimen of Printing Types by Isaac Moore & Co., Letter
Founders, in Queen Street, near Upper Moorfields, London, 1768.
Broadside. . . . . (Sohmian Coll., Stockholm.)
1770. A specimen of Printing Types by Isaac Moore & Co., Letter
Founders, of Queen Street, near Upper Moorfields, London, 1770.
Broadside. . . . . (Caxt. Cel., 4371.)
1785. A specimen of Printing Types made by Joseph Fry and Sons,
Letter Founders and Marking Instrument Makers by the King’s Royal
Letters Patent. London, Printed in the year 1785. 8vo. . . . . (B.
M., 679, e. 16.)
1785. A specimen of Printing Types by Joseph Fry & Sons, Letter
Founders, Worship Street, Moorfields, London, 1785. Broadside.
. . . . (T. B. R.)
1786. A specimen of Printing Types by Joseph Fry & Sons, Letter
Founders to the Prince of Wales. London, Printed in the year 1786.
8vo. . . . . (W. B.)
1787. A specimen of Printing Types by Edmund Fry & Co., 1787. 8vo.
. . . . (_Printer’s Grammar_, pp. 273–316.)
1788. A specimen of Printing Types by Edmund Fry & Co., Letter
Founders to the Prince of Wales. London, Printed in the year 1788.
8vo. . . . . (T. B. R.)
1790. A specimen of Printing Types by Edmund Fry & Co., Letter
Founders to the Prince of Wales. London, Printed in the year 1790.
8vo. . . . . (Sohmian Coll., Stockholm.) {314}
1793. Specimen of Metal Cast Ornaments, curiously adjusted to
Paper by Edmund Fry & Co., Letter Founders to the Prince of Wales,
Type Street, London. Printed by T. Rickaby, 1793. 8vo. . . . .
(Amer. Antiq. Soc.)
1794. A specimen of Printing Types by Fry & Steele, Letter
Founders to the Prince of Wales, Type Street, London. Printed by
T. Rickaby, 1794. 8vo. . . . . (B. M., 11899, i. 18.)
1794. Specimen of Metal Cast Ornaments, curiously adjusted to
paper by Edmund Fry and Isaac Steele, Letter Founders to the
Prince of Wales, Type Street, London. Printed by T. Rickaby, 1794.
8vo. . . . . (W. B.)
1795. A specimen of Printing Types by Fry & Steele, Letter
Founders to the Prince of Wales, Type Street, London. Printed by
T. Rickaby, 1795. 8vo. . . . . (T. B. R.)
1800. A specimen of Printing Types by Fry, Steele and Co., Letter
Founders to the Prince of Wales, Type Street, London. Printed in
the year 1800. 8vo. . . . . (T. B. R.)
Reprinted 1801 and 1803.
1805. A specimen of Printing Types by Fry & Steele, Letter
Founders to the Prince of Wales, Type Street, London. Printed in
the year 1805. 8vo. . . . . (T. B. R.)
1805. Specimen of Metal Cast Ornaments, curiously adjusted to
paper by Fry and Steele, Letter Founders to the Prince of Wales,
Type Street, London. Printed in the year 1805. 8vo. . . . . (W. B.)
No date. Specimen sheet of Head and Fable Cuts for Dilworth’s
Spelling Book, cast on hard metal, and curiously adjusted to paper
on the best Turkey Box, by Fry and Steele, Letter Founders, Type
Street, London. Price £4 4_s._ (1805?). Broadside. . . . . (Caxt.
Cel., 4386.)
1808. Specimens of Modern Cut Printing Types from the Foundry of
Messrs. Fry and Steele; together with a Specimen of Flowers. 1808.
8vo. . . . . (Stower’s _Printer’s Grammar_.)
1816. A specimen of Printing Types by Edmund Fry, Letter Founder
to the King and Prince Regent, Type Street, London, 1816. 8vo.
. . . . (B. M., 11899, h. 11.)
1820. Specimen of Modern Printing Types by Edmund Fry and Son,
Letter Founders to the King, Type Street, London, 1820. 8vo.
. . . . (T. B. R.)
1824. Specimen of Modern Printing Types by Edmund Fry, Letter
Founder to the King (Polyglot Foundry), Type Street, London. 1824.
4to. and 8vo. . . . . (B. M., 11899, h. 12.)
1825. A specimen of Diamond, by Edmund Fry, March 1825. 8vo.
. . . . (T. B. R.)
1827. Fry’s Newspaper Specimen, Type Street, 1827. Broadside.
. . . . (J. F.)
[Illustration]
{315}
[Illustration]