CHAPTER XIII.

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]

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:―

{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]

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.)

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