WILLIAM MARTIN, 1790.
William Martin was brother to Robert Martin,[679] Baskerville’s
apprentice and successor. He appears to have acquired his first
knowledge of the art at the Birmingham foundry, and about the year
1786 to have come to London and entered into the service of Mr. George
Nicol,[680] as a punch cutter. Mr. Nicol was at that time engaged in
maturing his plans for the production of a magnificent edition of
_Shakespeare_, and kept Martin at his own house “to cut sets of types
after approved models in imitation of the sharp and fine letter used by
the French and Italian printers.”
On the establishment of the famous “Shakespeare Press,”[681] by Messrs.
{331} Boydell and Nicol, in 1790, at Cleveland Row, St. James’s, with
William Bulmer as presiding genius, Martin was established in premises
hard by, in Duke Street; his foundry being a sort of private foundry in
connection with the Press. Here it was that he produced the founts in
which the magnificent works, issued during the next twenty years from
Bulmer’s Press, were printed.
The appearance of the first part of the _Shakespeare_[682] in 1791
at once established the fame of the printer and his types; and the
completion of the work, in nine volumes, in 1810, may be regarded as
marking an epoch in British typography. “No work of equal magnitude”,
says the enthusiastic Dibdin, “ever presented such complete accuracy
and uniform excellence of execution. There is scarcely one perceptible
shade of variation from the first page of the first volume, to the
last page of the work, either in the colour of the ink, the hue of the
paper, or the clearness and sharpness of the types.”[683]
The _Milton_,[684] which followed, is considered a still finer specimen
of typography. The enthusiasm animating all concerned in the new
undertaking was remarkable, and attracted universal attention. “The
nation,” says Dibdin, “appeared to be not less struck than astonished;
and our venerable monarch, George III, felt anxious not only to give
such a magnificent establishment every degree of royal support, but,
infected with the matrix and puncheon mania, he had even contemplated
the creation of a royal printing office within the walls of his own
palace.” One of the King’s great ambitions was for England to rival
Parma in the productions of Bodoni,[685] and Dibdin alludes to a story
current at the time of “his majesty being completely and joyfully taken
in, by bestowing upon the efforts of Mr. Bulmer’s press that eulogy
which he had supposed was due exclusively to Bodoni’s”.[686]
In the advertisement of his edition of the _Poems of Goldsmith
and Parnell_,[687] printed in 1795 and dedicated to the Messrs.
Boydell and Nicol, the founders of the Shakespeare Press, Bulmer
thus bears testimony to the talents of those who had contributed
to the performance:—“The present volume, in addition to {332} the
_Shakespeare_, the _Milton_, and many other valuable works of elegance
which have already been given to the world through the medium of the
Shakespeare Press, are (_sic_) particularly meant to combine the
various beauties of printing, type founding, engraving, and paper
making; as well as with a view to ascertain the near approach to
perfection which those arts have attained to (in) this country, as to
invite a fair competition with the typographical productions of other
nations. How far the different artists who have contributed their
exertions to this great object have succeeded in the attempt, the
public will now be fully able to judge.”
In all these encomiums, Martin claims a share; and, regarded simply
as type specimens, the productions of the Shakespeare Press justify
his reputation as a worthy disciple of his great master Baskerville.
His Roman and Italic types were cut in decided imitation of the famous
Birmingham models; although Hansard points out with disapproval that in
certain particulars he attempted unwisely to vary the design. “As to
the type”, he says, “the modern artist, Mr. Martin, has made an effort
to cut the ceriphs and hair strokes excessively sharp and fine; the
long ſ is discarded, and some trifling changes are introduced; but the
letter does not stand so true or well in line as Baskerville’s, and, as
to the Italic, the Birmingham artist will be found to far excel.”[688]
The Shakespeare Press, along with all the other presses of the land,
had to bow before the revolution which in the closing years of last
century swept aside the beautiful old-face Roman, and set up in its
stead the modern character; and Hansard’s strictures above-quoted
doubtless refer to Martin’s endeavour, while adhering to the
Baskerville form as his model, to modify it so as to conform to the new
fashion. We are among those who deplore the change thus inaugurated;
but at the same time it must be admitted that Martin succeeded as well
in the new departure as any of his contemporaries.
Nor did he confine himself to Roman and Italic. He produced several
founts of Greeks and Orientals, which eventually came to form the most
valuable part of his collection.[689] His Greek character, however,
like the Greeks attempted by Baskerville and Bodoni, was not a success;
and the otherwise beautiful edition of _Musæus_, printed in 1797,[690]
and bearing on the title-page his name as the cutter of the type, is
marred by the cramped and inelegant effect of that character. {333}
Although Martin’s foundry was entirely supported by, and, indeed,
belonged to, the Shakespeare Press, he appears occasionally to have
supplied his types to outsiders—amongst others to McCreery, the author
of the well-known poem on the _Press_, and himself a very elegant
printer. _The Press_,[691] was printed in 1803 from Martin’s type,
as a specimen of typography, and in his preface the author pays the
following tribute to that artist’s abilities:—“The extraordinary
efforts which have of late years been made to produce the finest models
of Printing Types, must be highly gratifying to those who have in any
measure interested themselves in raising the credit of the British
Press. The spirit for this species of beauty has long been gaining
an ascendancy, having received a strong impulse from the talents of
Baskerville, who endeavoured to combine sharpness and perfection of
impression with graceful types, giving to his works a finish which was
before unknown in this kingdom. Mr. Martin, whose abilities are so
conspicuously displayed in the productions of the Shakespeare Press, is
a pupil of that celebrated school. By the liberality of George Nicol,
Esq., I am enabled to boast of being the first who has participated
with Mr. Bulmer in the use of these types, a mark of kindness for which
my warmest acknowledgements are the least recompense he has a right to
expect.” Several of the other productions of McCreery’s press were also
printed from Martin’s type.
Among the finest specimens of the Shakespeare Press printed in Bulmer’s
time, the three great bibliographical works of Dibdin, viz., the
_Typographical Antiquities_,[692] the _Bibliotheca Spenceriana_,[693]
and the _Bibliographical Decameron_,[694] will always take a foremost
place. Martin, whose Roman type rarely appeared to greater advantage,
unfortunately did not live to see the completion of the whole of these
typographical masterpieces, as he died in the summer of 1815. He was
buried in St. James’s Church, Westminster.
After his death, the foundry (of which unfortunately no specimen-book
exists), appears to have been continued for a short time by Mr. Bulmer,
who, {334} between 1815 and 1819, when he himself retired, produced
several fine works.[695]
Prior to that event—in 1817—Mr. Nichols states that the foundry was
united with that of the Caslons.[696] There is, however, reason for
supposing that some of the matrices were retained for the use of the
Shakespeare Press, and that others went into the market and were
secured by other founders.[697]
The Shakespeare Press, under the supervision of Mr. W. Nicol, continued
in active operation till 1855, when he retired, and his printing
materials were sold; thus closing one of the most memorable chapters in
the history of British typographical enterprise.
[Illustration]
{335}
[Illustration]