T HIS foundry was begun in Sheffield about the beginning of the present century. In 1810, Mr. Bower issued a price list below those of the London founders, whose founts he succeeded occasionally in underselling. Hansard mentions the foundry in 1824, under the style of Bower, Bacon and Bower. No specimen is known with an earlier date than 1837, when the firm was G. W. Bower, late Bower and Bacon.
A later specimen bears the name of Mr. G. W. Bower alone, and in 1841 the firm was Bower Brothers, who published Proposals for establishing a graduated scale of sizes for the bodies of Printing Types, and fixing their height-to-paper, based upon Pica as the common standard.743
After the death of Mr. G. W. Bower, the foundry was continued by Mr. Henry Bower till his death about 1851, in September of which year the plant and stock were sold by auction and dispersed among the other founders. The Catalogue of this Sale contained about 50,000 punches and matrices; many of them, however, being obsolete or of small value. {358}
These two individuals are included among the Letter Founders whose names are given in Mason’s Printer’s Assistant744—the former having had his place of business in Green Street, Blackfriars, and the latter in Featherstone Buildings. They do not appear to have continued long in business, and their names are not included in the list of Letter Founders given in Johnson’s Typographia in 1824.
This man was founding in Edinburgh in 1810, at which date he had some correspondence with the Associated Founders respecting prices. Hansard mentions him as an incipient founder even in 1825, and a competitor of Mr. Miller’s. Nothing is known of the fate of his foundry; nor has any Specimen of his types come under notice.
Anthony Bessemer was a man of remarkable inventive genius. In his twentieth year he distinguished himself by the erection at Haarlem in Holland of pumping-engines to drain the turf pits; and before he had attained the age of twenty-five, he was elected a member of the Académie at Paris for improvements in the microscope. He subsequently turned his attention to letter founding, and established a foundry at Charlton, near Hitchin. Of the exact date of this undertaking we are uncertain; but, as his son, the present Sir Henry Bessemer, was born at Charlton in 1813, it is evident that the father was already settled there at that date. Hansard states745 that “Mr. Bessimer” cut the Caslon Diamond letter. If the person referred to is Mr. Anthony Bessemer, as is probable, it would appear that during the early years of his business as a founder, he placed his energies occasionally at the disposal of his brethren in the art.
In 1821 he issued a specimen of Modern-cut Printing Types, and shortly afterwards took into partnership Mr. J. J. Catherwood, formerly a partner of Mr. Henry Caslon II, who, since his retirement from that business, appears for a short time to have had a foundry of his own at Charles Street, Hoxton.746 Messrs. Bessemer {359} and Catherwood issued a Specimen in 1825, on the title-page of which the new partner styles himself “late of the Chiswell Street Foundry, London.”
Bessemer’s Romans were, in conformity with the fashion of the day, somewhat heavy, but finely cut. His chief performance was a Diamond, which was, as Hansard informs us, cut to eclipse the famous Diamond of Henri Didot, of Paris, at that time the smallest known. The execution of this feat, particularly in the Italic, was highly successful. The partnership between Messrs. Bessemer and Catherwood was not of long duration, and terminated either by the death or the retirement of the latter prior to 1830. Mr. Bessemer then removed his foundry to London, and established it at 54, Red Lion Street, Clerkenwell, whence, in 1830, he issued his final specimen book, consisting almost entirely of Roman founts.
In 1832 he retired from the business, and his foundry was put up to auction and dispersed. The Catalogue of the Sale mentions that the 2,500 punches included in the plant had been collected at an expense of £4,000, and that not a single strike had been taken from them but for the proprietor’s own use. From a marked copy of the Catalogue in our possession, it appears that several of the lots of punches and matrices fetched high prices. The list of implements and utensils shows that the foundry employed about seven casters and an equal number of rubbers and dressers.
Mr. Bessemer’s son, Henry, appears to have been for some time in his father’s foundry, where he mastered the mechanics of the trade. In 1838, being then twenty-five years old, he took out a patent for improvements in type-founding machinery, embodying several ingenious contrivances, some of which have since been adopted.
1821. Specimen of the last modern cut Printing Types by A. Bessemer, Letter Founder, Hitchin, Herts. 1821. 8vo. (Caxt. Cel., 4400.)
1825. Specimen of the last modern cut Printing Types by A. Bessemer & J. J. Catherwood, Letter Founders, Hitchin, Herts. (J. J. Catherwood, late of the Chiswell Street Foundry, London.) 1825. 8vo. (W. B.)
1830. Specimen of the last modern cut Printing Types by A. Bessemer, Letter Founder, 54, Red Lion Street, Clerkenwell, London. 1830. 8vo. (T. B. R.)
Richard Austin began business as a punch cutter in the employ of Messrs. S. and C. Stephenson of the British Type Foundry, about the year 1795. On the Title-page of the specimen issued by that foundry in 1796, his name is {360} mentioned as the cutter of the punches, and the excellent specimen itself is no mean testimony to his abilities.
The activity prevailing throughout the trade generally at that period, consequent on the transition of the Roman character from the old style to the modern, brought the punch cutter’s services into much request, and Hansard informs us that Mr. Austin executed most of the modern founts both for Messrs. Wilson of Glasgow and Mr. Miller of Edinburgh.
Prior to the year 1819 he began a foundry of his own at Worship Street, Finsbury, in which subsequently his son, George Austin, joined him; and, in the year 1824, succeeded to the business. This foundry was styled the Imperial Letter Foundry, and carried on under the style of Austin & Sons. The earliest known specimen was issued in 1827. This 8vo volume is prefaced by a somewhat lengthy address to the Trade, in which, after criticising the letter founding of the day, the proprietors boldly claim to be the only letter founders in London who cut their own punches, which they do in a peculiar manner so as to insure perfect sharpness in outline. They also announce that they cast their type in an extra hard metal.
Mr. Austin appears to have been a man of considerable force and independence of character. It is related of him that once, on receiving—what to any founder at that day must have been a momentous mandate—an intimation that The Times wanted to see him, he replied, with an audacity which sends a shudder even through a later generation, “that if The Times wanted to see him, he supposed it knew where to find him!”
On the death of Mr. Austin, his foundry was acquired by Mr. R. M. Wood, who subsequently, in partnership with Messrs. Samuel and Thomas Sharwood, transferred it to 120 Aldersgate Street, under the title of the Austin Letter Foundry. Messrs. Wood and Sharwoods’ first specimen was issued in 1839. In their preface, reference is again made to the late Mr. Austin’s hard metal, the superiority of which, it is stated, “was owing to one peculiar article being used in the mixture which is unknown to our brethren in the Art.”
Mr. Wood died in 1845, and the firm subsequently became S. and T. Sharwood, who, in 1854, published two specimens, one of Types, the other of Polytyped Metal Ornaments.
This latter collection had been begun more than twenty years previously by Vizitelly, Branston & Co.,747 who, in 1832, had issued a specimen of Cast Metal {361} Ornaments, “produced by a new improved method.” This method appears to have consisted of the soldering of the casts on metal mounts—at that time a novelty. The Sharwoods subsequently acquired this collection of blocks and considerably increased it.
On the death of the two Sharwoods, which occurred about the same time in 1856, the Austin Foundry was thrown into Chancery and put up for auction, and its contents dispersed among the trade.
1827. Specimens of Printing Types cast at Austin’s Imperial Letter Foundry, Worship Street, Shoreditch, London. 1827. 8vo. (Caxt. Cel., 4407.)
1839. A Specimen Book of the Types cast at the Austin Letter Foundry, by Wood & Sharwoods. No. 120, Aldersgate Street, London. 1839. 4to. (Caxt. Cel., 4429.)
1832. Specimen of Vizitelly, Branston & Co.’s Cast Metal Ornaments produced by a new and improved method, greater in number and variety, superior in design and execution, and considerably cheaper in price than any collection hitherto offered to the notice of printers. 76, Fleet Street, London, January 1832. 4to. (Caxt. Cel., 4416.)
This Frenchman started a foundry in Great Wild Street, Lincoln’s Inn. He had probably been established a few years when his first specimen was issued in 1819, the most interesting portion of which was a somewhat lengthy address to the public, setting forth the principles on which his “New Foundry” was to be conducted. He mentions that “only four Type Foundries (exclusive of mine) are worked in London at this time,” and declares his intention of breaking down the monopoly they assumed. The specimen itself is not remarkable.
In 1823, he took out the patent for this country for Henri Didot’s system of polymatype748 which consisted of a machine capable of casting from 150 to 200 types at each operation, each operation being repeated twice a minute. This result was to be obtained by means of a matrix bar which formed one side of a long trough mould into which the metal was poured; and, when opened, “the types are found adhering to the break bar like the teeth of a comb, when they are broken off and dressed in the usual way.” Pouchée became agent in England for this novel system of casting which, says the editor of the partial reprint of Hansard’s Typographia, writing in 1869, was still used successfully in France at that date. {362}
The attempt to introduce this system into England went far to ruin Pouchée; and, according to the above authority, “on his failure to sustain the competition of the associated founders,749 Didot’s machine and valuable tools were purchased by them through their agent, Mr. Reed, Printer, King Street, Covent Garden, and destroyed on the premises of Messrs. Caslon and Livermore.”
Despite this unfortunate speculation, Pouchée (who appears for some time to have had a partner named Jennings),750 issued another Specimen Book in 1827, dated from Little Queen Street, London, in the advertisement of which he again referred to the fact that there were still only four letter-foundries in London (exclusive of his own), and took credit to himself for bringing about a reduction of 12 per cent. in the prices of his opponents. The specimen, which shows Titlings, Roman and Italic, Egyptians, Blacks and Flowers, is of little merit and is marked by a great preponderance of heavy faces.
About the same time,751 he issued a price list of all kinds of printers’ materials, styling himself “Type Founder and Stereotype Caster.” In the beginning of 1830 he abandoned the business, which was sold by auction. The Catalogue included a large quantity of stereotype ornaments, as well as 20,000 matrices and punches, moulds, presses, and 35 tons of Type. The lots were variously disposed of at low prices among the other founders.
1819. Specimen of Printing Types by L. J. Pouchée, at the New Foundry, Great Wild Street, Lincoln’s Inn Fields, London. 1819. 8vo. (Caxt. Cel., 4397.)
1827. Specimens of Printing Types by Louis J. Pouchée, Little Queen Street, London. 1827. 8vo. (Ox. Univ. Pr.)
Richard Watts, a printer of Crown Court, Strand, who, from 1802–9, had held the office of printer to Cambridge University, distinguished himself towards the close of the first quarter of the present century as a cutter and founder of Oriental and foreign characters, of which he accumulated a considerable collection. His first printing office was at Broxbourne, whence in 1816 he removed to Crown Court, Temple Bar, and here, chiefly under the patronage of the Bible {363}
Society and the Mission Presses in India and elsewhere, he produced the punches of a large number of languages hitherto unknown to English typography. He received the assistance and advice of many eminent scholars in his work, some of whom personally superintended the execution of certain of the founts. His collection increased at a rapid rate, and at the time of his death included almost every Oriental language in which, at that time, the Scriptures had been printed. His death occurred in 1844 at Edmonton, in which place his foundry appears to have been for some time located.
He was succeeded in business by his son, Mr. William Mavor Watts, who printed a broadside specimen of the founts, numbering 67 languages and dialects, of which several were shown in different sizes of character. This number was largely augmented during the following years, and, in the specimen prepared by Mr. Watts for the Exhibition of 1862, nearly 150 versions were exhibited. To this specimen was prefixed an interesting note respecting the origin of many of the founts. The collection was subsequently acquired by Messrs. Gilbert and Rivington, in whose possession it still remains and increases.
This artist, described as a very able engraver, was for some time in partnership with Robert Thorne at the Fann Street Foundry. In 1824, he commenced a foundry of his own in Dean Street, Fetter Lane, whence he published a specimen of Book and Newspaper type, without date, which, besides Romans, Scripts, and Egyptians, included also Saxon, Greek, Flowers, and Music.
He appears specially to have applied himself to the production of this last-named character, and attained the reputation of being the best music type cutter in the trade. Savage, in his Dictionary of Printing, shows a specimen of Hughes music, observing that “the English musical types have never to my knowledge undergone any improvement till within a few years, when Mr. Hughes cut two new founts,” (Nonpareil and Pearl), “which are looked upon as the best we have and the largest of which I have used for this article (‘Music’).” Hughes’ system appears to have been that originally introduced by Breitkopf in 1764, and the scheme of a pair of cases by which his specimen is accompanied shows that a complete fount comprised as many as 238 distinct characters. Besides music of the modern notation, Hughes had matrices for the Gregorian Plain Chant Music, of which a specimen is also shown by Savage.
After the death of Mr. Hughes, which took place before 1841, the punches and matrices of his different music founts, Gregorian and modern, were purchased by Mr. C. Hancock, of Middle Row, Holborn, by whom they were considerably {364} improved, and who, subsequently, after his removal to Gloucester Street, Queen Square, issued a specimen. Of the disposal of the other contents of Mr. Hughes’ foundry we have no information.
No date. A Specimen of Book and Newspaper Printing Types by Hugh Hughes, Letter Cutter and Founder, 23 Dean Street, Fetter Lane. 8vo. (Caxt. Cel., 4398.)
No date. Specimen Sheet of Modern Music Types by H. Hughes, 23 Dean Street, Fetter Lane, together with a scheme of Music Cases. 8vo. (T. B. R.)
Hansard states that this founder was early initiated in mechanical science by Mr. Maudsley, the engineer; he was formerly in partnership with Mr. Harvey, an engraver, by whom his founts were principally cut. His foundry was in Stanhope Street, Clare Market, and is mentioned by Johnson as one of the nine foundries carried on in London in the year 1824. No Specimen has come under observation.
To complete the list of minor founders prior to 1830, should be added the names of these three individuals, who are mentioned by Hansard in his Typographia as distinct London letter founders in 1825.