CHAPTER V
THE WHITTINGHAMS AND THE MODERN BOOK
Charles Whittingham, the elder, founder of the business which is now known as the Chiswick Press, was born in 1767. He began work as a printer in 1789 on a very small scale. His first work was small job work such as cards, letterheads, billheads, and the like. It was not until 1792 that he did any book work at all. His first job was part of an edition of Young’s “Night Thoughts.” It was not uncommon at this time for publishers to parcel out a book among a number of small printers, giving to each a certain number of signatures. Like his great predecessor Day, Whittingham started out doing printing as badly as anybody else. The work which he did on his first book order shows all the vices of the time.
Fortunately for the art, Whittingham was not content to remain a poor printer, although he must have been perfectly aware that he was such. He early made the acquaintance of William Caslon, from whom he bought type and from whom he not improbably received typographical suggestions. In 1798 he published a book of a sort much in vogue at that period, called “Pity’s Gift.” In choice of type, design of title page, and other regards this book shows a great improvement over the work of previous years. It was illustrated and was the beginning of the long series of illustrated books for which the house afterwards became famous. The illustrations, however, were poor in themselves and poorly printed. Here again Whittingham began on a level with his contemporaries, but by study and labor raised himself far above that level.
In a few years Whittingham was recognized as the best printer in England and had built up a good and profitable business. He won this success in spite of the fact that he, even more than Baskerville, failed to get on with the publishers. The publishers wanted cheap printing and large profits. Whittingham refused to lower his standards to meet their desires and insisted on printing to suit himself and, as he believed, the public. Less ambitious than Baskerville, but equally conscientious, Whittingham published small books, well printed, which could be sold at a reasonable price, although not at the price of trash. He was right in his estimate of the public demand and, secure in public support, was able to defy the publishers. When they refused to give him their work he told them to keep it, and entirely disregarded their hostility. He carried the war into the enemies’ country by refusing to be bound by certain trade customs. These customs were survivals of the old privileges and monopolies which kept certain books in certain hands. There was no foundation for these customs except their antiquity, and Whittingham proposed to publish certain books which from time immemorial had been held to be the property of others. Of course, the publishers called him a pirate, but he never infringed upon a real copyright and his conduct in the matter is entirely free from moral reproach.
Whittingham was an enterprising business man as well as desirous of artistic improvement. He bought the first Stanhope press which was sold to a printing house, in 1800, and his house was among the first to adopt improved machinery and methods of all sorts. There is, however, one notable exception. Whittingham and his nephew and successor believed that it was not possible to do the best work on anything but a hand press, and no power presses were used in the Chiswick Press until 1860.
About the opening of the century a man by the name of Potts invented a process for making paper-stock from old rope by removing the tar and dirt. Whittingham got possession of this process and opened a paper-stock factory. He did not, however, open a paper mill, but sold the stock to Fourdrinier, the great French paper maker. The paper-stock mill was at Chiswick, and Whittingham opened in 1811 a second printing office in the neighborhood, which he called the Chiswick Press. For a time he carried on the two printing offices, the paper-stock mill, a book-shop, several publishing ventures, and a business of some sort, it is not now known what, in Jersey. It was not many years, however, before he saw the danger of this extension and gradually disposed of the outside things, concentrating his interest in the Chiswick Press, which he preferred to continue rather than the London office.
During this period his work steadily continued to improve. He invented a secret process for giving permanent brilliancy to his ink. He gave the greatest attention to the design and layout of his books, proportion in the matter of margins and the like, and to presswork. This last was doubly important because of his determination to improve the process of illustration. Of course, the modern processes were not then in use. Black and white was done either from wood blocks or steel and copper plates, and color work was done by the use of solid color on blocks. In order to secure better results in black and white, Whittingham invented the over-lay process. Some of his work in color was the best ever produced by the methods which were then known. An indication of the resources of the establishment may be gathered from the story of the production of his British Poets, sets of which may still be occasionally bought in old book-shops. The design for the series was planned in 1819. It was shortly announced that they were to be published on a given day in 1822. When the day came the whole set was published as announced. It consisted of one hundred royal 18mo volumes, illustrated. Five hundred sets were printed, making a total of 50,000 volumes.
Shortly after this the younger Charles Whittingham, nephew of the elder, appears upon the scene. He was his uncle’s apprentice and became his partner in 1824. The partnership lasted for four years and was apparently not a very harmonious arrangement. The elder Whittingham, like many strong and successful men, was masterful and was not disposed to share either power or responsibility. The young man, although having no occasion to complain of any unfairness, felt that although nominally a partner he was really merely an employee. In 1828 he left the Chiswick Press and set up for himself in London. He continued in business there for ten years and then his uncle, who was now old and in failing health, called him back to take charge of the Chiswick Press. In spite of the fact that their partnership had not been satisfactory, the old man doubtless realized that his nephew was the only man in England who was competent to continue the business which he had built up with so much toil and in which he took so much pride. From this time until the date of the death of the elder man the younger Whittingham was the moving spirit in the establishment. After the death of the elder Whittingham the plant was moved back to London without change of name.
Shortly after the younger Whittingham took over the management he became acquainted with William Pickering and formed an association with him which had momentous effects on English printing and publishing. Pickering had started an old-book business in 1821 and had made money. Although not a practical printer he was interested in books and he had very intelligent ideas as to what qualities made books good, considered as pieces of work. Pickering desired to publish fine editions of old writers and entered into an alliance with Whittingham to produce them. For twenty-five years these two men worked together doing the best book-making which England had yet seen. Comparatively little of it was new work. It was mainly the printing of fine editions of so-called standard literature. In 1844, dissatisfied with the types in current use, they induced Henry Caslon, who was then the head of the Caslon foundry, to revive the old William Caslon type, known technically as old-face roman, and this revival was the beginning of the permanent restoration of the Caslon types to favor.
Pickering and Whittingham together may be said to be the fathers of the modern book. Together they worked out many improvements. The excellent work in illustration which had been developed by the elder Whittingham was continued and improved. In 1840 they were doing color printing from wood blocks which was the best ever done by that process in England, and later they began to produce ornamental books with initials, borders, head pieces, and the like, printed from wood blocks, but superior to anything which had been seen since the days of illuminated manuscripts. Pickering and Whittingham were in constant consultation. They spent their Sundays and much other time together. The completeness of their cooperation is shown by Whittingham’s answer to the question which of the two had the greater influence on the other. He replied, “My dear sir, when you tell me which half of a pair of scissors is the more useful, I will answer your question.”
Pickering died in 1854, bankrupt through indorsing notes for a friend. The death of Pickering was a great blow to Whittingham, but the bankruptcy did not in any way involve the Chiswick Press. Whittingham never took the same interest in the business afterward, although the house had become sufficiently strong to continue and maintain its standards. Whittingham was always actuated by the true craftsman’s spirit. He was successful in his business, but he was more anxious for artistic than for financial success. There is not the slightest doubt that if he had been willing to do so he might have amassed a large fortune. Upon one occasion he was called in as an expert to figure the price which the government should offer for a very large contract. Instead of calling for bids the government had a price figured which it proposed to offer for the work. Whittingham figured a price which would be just to the government and at the same time offer a good margin of profit to the contractor. After he had completed his labors, he was offered the contract himself, but refused, stating as he did so that he would rather print fine books than make money.
The history of English printing shows one more epoch-making figure. It is that of William Morris, poet, socialist, idealist, and craftsman. Morris is in many ways one of the most picturesque figures of the nineteenth century. Interested in many kinds of craftsmanship, he was particularly interested in printing and in 1891 he set up the Kelmscott Press in order to express his idea of what a book should be. Morris was above all things a man of the Middle Ages. Like the even more famous Ruskin, his spirit revolted from many of the characteristics of the nineteenth century. Whatever he did, thought, or said is influenced by this underlying spirit of mediævalism. In his books and his types we find exhibited the spirit and forms of the fifteenth century, but the vital thing is the spirit and not the form. Although deeply influenced by fifteenth century forms, Morris’s work is not mere imitation. It is rather a reproduction of the old-time spirit. Morris said that in printing it was important to consider “the paper, the form of the type, the relative spacing of the letters, words, and lines, and lastly the position of the printed matter on the page.” The harmony and completeness of the whole, a harmony extending beyond mechanism to the harmony of literary spirit and typographic form, was his fundamental idea. In working this out he adopted as a unit not the single page of type, as had been commonly the case, but the double page, on the ground that when the book is opened we have before our eyes not one page but two, and therefore the two together form a unit of book composition.
Morris designed three types, named from the books in which they were first employed. The first was the Golden, from the Golden Legend, a heavy black roman letter with distinct gothic influence. The second was the Troy, from an edition of Caxton’s Troy book, a modification of a Koburger gothic of the fifteenth century. The third was the Chaucer, so called from an edition of some of Chaucer’s work, which was the Troy reduced in size and slightly modified in face. The initial letters were designed by Morris in imitation of a set used by Sweynheim and Pannartz.
Unfortunately Morris lived only five years after he began to print and his press did not survive him. During that period he published fifty-three books in sixty-five volumes, none of them in large editions. The influence of Morris, however, was very great. Although he was not extensively copied directly, he led in a marked revival of the spirit of the old craftsman and in a renewal of the old conception of the unity and harmony of the book as a whole. The Kelmscott Press was hardly closed when Charles Ricketts opened the Vale Press, which operated from 1896 to 1904. Ricketts had much of the spirit and many of the methods of Morris, but unlike Morris, who approached his type problem from the side of manuscript, Ricketts conceived his forms as cast in metal. Another continuer of Morris’s work was the Dove Press, which was started in 1900.
Morris’s influence extended beyond the Atlantic and shows itself in some of the best American printing, particularly that of Mr. Daniel Berkeley Updike of the Merrymount Press of Boston and Mr. Bruce Rogers of the Riverside Press of Cambridge.
The central feature in the history of printing of the last century has been the development of periodical and commercial printing. Previous to the last hundred years the particular thing was the book, but book printing is now only a small part of the industry. A study of periodical and commercial printing would be extremely interesting, but it lies in the domain of typography rather than in that of the history of printing. With the brief consideration which we have made of the so-called revival of printing under Morris and his successors we may properly take leave of this branch of our subject.
SUPPLEMENTARY READING
William Caxton. By Charles Knight. (Popular and in a few respects inaccurate, but excellent for its sketch of the life and conditions of Caxton’s time.)
Life and Typography of William Caxton. By William Blades. (The standard authority, but suited only for somewhat advanced students.)
A Short History of English Printing. By Henry R. Plomer. (A fairly good general view of the subject.)
The Cambridge History of English Literature. Vol. II, Chap. xiii; Vol. IV, Chap. xviii; Vol. VII, Chap. xv; Vol. XI, Chap. xiv. (This work is made up of monographs written by distinguished specialists. The chapters indicated contain a very good general view of the development of British printing and publishing and of the beginnings of journalism in England.)
See files of the Inland Printer (Chicago) for excellent articles by Mr. Henry L. Bullen. These articles are notable for their valuable illustrations.
REVIEW QUESTIONS
SUGGESTIONS TO STUDENTS AND INSTRUCTORS
The following questions, based on the contents of this pamphlet, are intended to serve (1) as a guide to the study of the text, (2) as an aid to the student in putting the information contained into definite statements without actually memorizing the text, (3) as a means of securing from the student a reproduction of the information in his own words.
A careful following of the questions by the reader will insure full acquaintance with every part of the text, avoiding the accidental omission of what might be of value. These primers are so condensed that nothing should be omitted.
In teaching from these books it is very important that these questions and such others as may occur to the teacher should be made the basis of frequent written work, and of final examinations.
The importance of written work cannot be overstated. It not only assures knowledge of material but the power to express that knowledge correctly and in good form.
If this written work can be submitted to the teacher in printed form it will be doubly useful.
QUESTIONS
1. What general conditions made England slow to take up printing?
2. What special conditions existed in England about the time of the invention of printing?
3. What is the truth about the story that the first English printed book was dated 1468?
4. Tell the story of Caxton’s life up to his return to England.
5. Tell the story of the rest of his life.
6. How many books did he print, and of what sort?
7. What remarkable omissions are there in his work, and why?
8. What was his special field?
9. What sort of man was Caxton?
10. What can you say about Caxton’s typography?
11. What other printers appeared in England during Caxton’s life?
12. What was the great difference between Caxton and his successors?
13. Who was Caxton’s successor in business, and what do you know about him?
14. Who was Pynson, and what did he do?
15. What do you know about Copeland; Berthelet; Grafton and Whitchurch?
16. Describe the condition of English printing up to 1550, and give the reason.
17. What change took place after 1525?
18. What books were imported, and why?
19. What was the situation in England all through the Middle Ages with regard to labor troubles?
20. What social change took place in the nineteenth century, and what was the result?
21. How did the English deal with the problem of the regulation of printing?
22. What can you say about English craft guilds?
23. What were the reasons for the organization of the Company of Stationers?
24. What was the form of organization of the Company?
25. What was the Star Chamber?
26. What were the powers and the duties of the Company?
27. What followed the organization of the Company?
28. Give the substance of the edict of 1586.
29. What did the Company do in the execution of this edict?
30. What difficulties, other than those caused by the edicts, troubled the printers?
31. Tell the story of John Wolfe.
32. What was the result of the reduction in the number of offices, and what was done about it?
33. Describe English printing apprenticeship at this period.
34. What were the relations between author, printer, and bookseller?
35. Tell the story of John Day.
36. Mention other printers of this time, and give some distinguishing fact about each.
37. What tendency appears in English printing after Day, and why?
38. How did printing fare under James I; under Charles I?
39. Give the substance of the edict of 1637.
40. What legislation was enacted to protect English printing?
41. What happened when Parliament got the upper hand, and why?
42. How did printing fare under Cromwell?
43. Tell the story of the attempt to incorporate the Company of Printers.
44. Sketch the course of government regulation from 1662 to 1694.
45. Tell about Roycroft and his work.
46. Tell about the four type-founders of this time.
47. Describe the rise to prominence of the Oxford Press.
48. What three special changes took place in the eighteenth century?
49. Tell the story of the invention of stereotyping.
50. Tell how the publishers became the principal power in the book business.
51. Give the substance of the copyright act of 1709.
52. What was the effect of this act on the author and on the manufacture of books?
53. Tell the story of William Caslon.
54. Tell the story of Samuel Richardson.
55. Tell the story of the life of Baskerville.
56. Tell about Baskerville as a type-founder.
57. Tell about Baskerville’s press; his methods; the reason for his lack of success.
58. Was Baskerville’s work a failure, and why?
59. Tell the story of Charles Whittingham, the elder.
60. Tell the story of Charles Whittingham, the younger.
61. Tell the story of Pickering and his alliance with Whittingham.
62. Tell the story of Morris and the Kelmscott Press.
63. Describe Morris’s ideas and tell about his work.
64. What was the effect of Morris’s work?
65. Name a few of the printers most influenced by him.
TYPOGRAPHIC TECHNICAL SERIES FOR APPRENTICES
The following list of publications, comprising the TYPOGRAPHIC TECHNICAL SERIES FOR APPRENTICES, has been prepared under the supervision of the Committee on Education of the United Typothetae of America for use in trade classes, in courses of printing instruction, and by individuals.
Each publication has been compiled by a competent author or group of authors, and carefully edited, the purpose, being to provide the printers of the United States—employers, journeymen, and apprentices—with a comprehensive series of handy and inexpensive compendiums of reliable, up-to-date information upon the various branches and specialties of the printing craft, all arranged in orderly fashion for progressive study.
The publications of the series are of uniform size, 5 × 8 inches. Their general make-up, in typography, illustrations, etc., has been, as far as practicable, kept in harmony throughout. A brief synopsis of the particular contents and other chief features of each volume will be found under each title in the following list.
Each topic is treated in a concise manner, the aim being to embody in each publication as completely as possible all the rudimentary information and essential facts necessary to an understanding of the subject. Care has been taken to make all statements accurate and clear, with the purpose of bringing essential information within the understanding of beginners in the different fields of study. Wherever practicable, simple and well-defined drawings and illustrations have been used to assist in giving additional clearness to the text.
In order that the pamphlets may be of the greatest possible help for use in trade-school classes and for self-instruction, each title is accompanied by a list of Review Questions covering essential items of the subject matter. A short Glossary of technical terms belonging to the subject or department treated is also added to many of the books.
These are the Official Text-books of the United Typothetae of America.
Address all orders and inquiries to COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION, UNITED TYPOTHETAE OF AMERICA, CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, U. S. A.
TYPOGRAPHIC TECHNICAL SERIES _for_ APPRENTICES