Part 1

_JOHN BASKERVILLE_

_JOHN BASKERVILLE_

TYPE-FOUNDER AND PRINTER

1706-1775

BY _Josiah Henry Benton, LL.D._

BOSTON _PRIVATELY PRINTED_ 1914

_Copyright, 1914, by J. H. Benton_

_D. B. Updike, The Merrymount Press, Boston_

_NOTE_

_I have, for some years, been interested in John Baskerville, and have collected his imprints. Knowing this fact, the President of the Boston Society of Printers asked me to prepare a paper on Baskerville, to be read at a meeting of the Society on February 24, 1914. This I did, and that paper formed the basis of this little book._

J. H. B.

JOHN BASKERVILLE

John Baskerville, a great English type-founder and printer, was born in January, 1706, and died in January, 1775, having lived nearly the full period of threescore years and ten. To understand him and what he did, we must know something of the time and place in which he lived. It was a time when the great middle classes of England were coming into power. The divine right of kings was destroyed at Culloden in 1745. England was slowly awakening from the deadly languor of the corruption of Walpole’s government. Whitefield was preaching, and Wesley was preaching and organizing. The middle classes grew stronger every day and kept Pitt, with his intense patriotism and extravagance, in power, in spite of the upper classes. The rule of England in the East began in 1757, when Clive, on June 23, fought the battle of Plassey. Frederick the Great, aided by the liberal subsidies of Pitt, fought the battle of Rossbach in November, 1757, and the battle of Minden in November, 1759, thus laying the foundation of the German Empire which has always been at peace with England. The capture of Montreal in 1760 established the English ascendancy in the New World. During this period the English Empire came into being because of the rule of the commercial middle class.

Birmingham was even then a great middle-class town; a place of about 30,000 inhabitants, noted for its varied manufactures, but more noted for its freedom, by which it seemed to have the power of attracting within its boundaries artisans of every trade and every degree of skill. It accorded almost perfect freedom to all. Dissenters, Baptists, Methodists, Roman Catholics, Jews, Quakers, and heretics of all sorts were welcomed, and were undisturbed in their religious observances. No trades unions, no trade guilds, no companies existed. The system of apprentices was only partially known. Every man was free to come and go, to found, or to follow, or to leave a trade, just as he chose. Birmingham was emphatically the town of free trade, where no restrictions, commercial or municipal, existed.

Into this community young Baskerville came. It was particularly suited to him. He was a free thinker. He was active, industrious, inventive, persistent. He thought out and did new things.[1]

His first occupation, when he was seventeen years old, was that of a servant in the house of a clergyman, who discovered that Baskerville was skilled in penmanship and set him to teaching the poor boys in the parish the art of writing.

The post of writing-master at King Edward’s School in Birmingham fell vacant, and Baskerville took it and taught writing and bookkeeping there. In the mean time he had become very much interested in calligraphy, and turned his skill in writing to the cutting of stones. Of his actual stone-cutting work only two specimens have been preserved, the most important of which is in the churchyard at Edgbaston. There is also a small square slate slab with the inscription: “Grave Stones Cut in any of the Hands by John Baskervill Writing Master.” It is to be noted that the final e was not added to Baskerville’s name until after he became more prosperous. In the fine lettering of this inscription it is easy to trace the foundation of those forms of type which Baskerville afterwards used in printing. He practised writing during the years 1733, 1734, and 1735, being rated for school taxes at a sixpence.

About the year 1736 one John Taylor came to Birmingham and introduced japanned ware in the shape of indoor utensils and articles of personal or other ornament. From the smallest beginnings Taylor created a business out of which he had acquired a fortune of £200,000 when he died at the age of fifty-four. To Taylor we owe the gilt button and gilt snuff-box, the painted snuff-box, and the numerous race of enamels.

Baskerville had a great desire to obtain money, and as he was a good draughtsman and had a turn for painting, it occurred to him that the best thing he could do would be to produce goods painted and japanned as they never had been painted and japanned before. He dropped his writing-materials and set himself to learn the secrets of japanning. It is said that he obtained his knowledge of Mr. Taylor’s cheap and excellent varnish for snuff-boxes, which was a secret, by following him to every place and shop where he went and ordering precisely the same species, kind, and quality of articles that he had ordered. He thus learned not only the ingredients of the varnish, but their proportions.

Baskerville had that which is rare,--business capacity in connection with artistic taste,--and he soon built up a flourishing business. In 1749 he carried on a great trade in the japan art, making such useful things as candlesticks, stands, salvers, waiters, bread-trays, tea-boards, etc., which were elegantly designed and highly finished. His ingenuity continually suggested improvements both in the materials of which he made use and in the methods adopted in the manufacture, while he had a genius in selecting as workmen those who were best fitted for their occupation. One of his advertisements reads as follows: “Any boy of a decent Family who has a Genius and Turn for Drawing will be taken on trial on moderate terms. Any Painters of tolerable Abilities may have constant employment.”

In 1742 he obtained a patent for “a new method of making and flat grinding thin metal plates and of working or fashioning the same by means of iron rolls and swages.” The plates were japanned and varnished to “produce fine glowing Mohogony Colour and Black no way inferior to the most perfect India goods, or an imitation of Tortoise shell which greatly excels Nature, both in Colour and Hardness.” It will be seen that this patent embodied to a great extent the same principle that Baskerville employed in his later treatment of paper. In the japan business Baskerville competed with Taylor, not so much in making the things Taylor made as in making better ones and different ones. A curious thing about Baskerville’s japan work is that no authentic specimen has come down to us.

In a few years he amassed a considerable fortune in that business. He took a building lease of eight acres in the northeast part of Birmingham, to which he gave the name of _Easy Hill_, and there he built a house at an expense of about £6000, or $30,000, equivalent to at least $60,000 to-day. This place is described by Alexander Carlyle as follows: “Baskerville’s house was a quarter of a mile from the town, and in its way handsome and elegant. What struck us most was his first kitchen, which was most completely furnished with everything that could be wanted, kept as clean and bright as if it had come straight from the shop, for it was used, and the fineness of the kitchen was a great point in the family, for here they received their company, and there we were entertained with coffee and chocolate.”[2] Derrick, in a letter written to the Earl of Cork, July 15, 1760, says: “I need not remind your Lordship, that Baskerville, one of the best printers in the world, was born in this town, and resides near it. His house stands at about half a mile distance, on an eminence that commands a fine prospect. I paid him a visit, and was received with great politeness, though an entire stranger. His apartments are elegant; his stair-case is particularly curious; and the room in which he dines, and calls a smoking-room is very handsome. The grate and furniture belonging to it are, I think, of bright wrought iron, and cost him a round sum. He has just completed an elegant octavo Common Prayer Book, has a scheme for publishing a grand folio edition of the Bible; and will soon finish a beautiful collection of Fables, by the ingenious Mr. Dodsley. He manufactures his own paper, types, and ink; and they are remarkably good. This ingenious artist carries on a great trade in the japan way, in which he shewed me several useful articles, such as candlesticks, stands, salvers, waiters, bread-baskets, tea-boards, &c. elegantly designed and highly finished. Baskerville is a great cherisher of genius, which, wherever he finds it, he loses no opportunity of cultivating. One of his workmen has manifested fine talents for fruit painting in several pieces which he shewed me.”

A writer in the Birmingham “Daily Mail” of February 3, 1886, thus describes the Easy Hill residence: “The pasture was luxuriant, great elm trees shaded the parklike expanse of verdure, an ample fish-pond stretched away westwards, and a picturesque disused windmill standing upon a slight elevation was ready to be converted into the most captivating of summer houses.... Of the house which he built for himself we have engravings, and as many remains as one would care to preserve of that particular style of architecture.”

Hutton, the historian of Birmingham, says Baskerville previously lived at No. 22 in Moor-street, and that having obtained a building lease, “two furlongs north of the town, he converted it into a little Eden, and built a house in the center; but the town, as if conscious of his merit, followed his retreat, and surrounded it with buildings.... Here he continued the business of a japanner for life: his carriage, each pannel of which was a distinct picture, might be considered the _pattern-card of his trade_, and was drawn by a beautiful pair of cream-coloured horses.” This chariot was one of the wonders of Birmingham, one section richly gilt and painted with little naked cupids and flowers, drawn by two cream-colored horses with net hangings almost to the ground. The panels were said to be each in the nature of a picture, got up Japan-wise.[3] He became High Bailiff of Birmingham in 1761. His duties were to inspect the market and rectify weights and dry measures; also to make proclamation of two fairs each year; and to give a dinner to the other municipal officers, at which it is said that an expense of £40 was incurred. This dinner was intended for business, but, in the quaint language of the historian of the time, “It was too early to begin business till the table was well stored with bottles, and too late afterwards.” He affected clothes of the most gorgeous description. His favorite dress was said to have been green, edged with a narrow gold lace, a scarlet waistcoat with a very broad gold lace, and a small round hat likewise edged with lace. It is said that he attended a funeral in a new suit of bright colors and gold lace.

All this show created a suspicion in the public mind that Baskerville was in financial trouble, so that at one time he published a refutation of some charges of that kind in the Birmingham “Gazette.” He sought to find the author of the charges, declaring that “Whoever can discover the author, or give a clue by which he may be traced, will by informing me lay me under the highest obligations of gratitude.”

In these letters he said that he had “often wished an additional Article in the Litany for the Use of Tradesmen,--From Bad Debts and Bankrupts, Good Lord deliver us.”

A Mrs. Eaves went to live at Easy Hill about 1750. She took her two daughters, and very likely her son, with her. She had made an unfortunate marriage with one Richard Eaves, who, “having been found guilty of some fraudulent practices in regard to a relation’s will, was obliged to quit the kingdom.”[4] Her husband left her without money or any means of support. Baskerville became interested in her, and she went to his house probably as a housekeeper. Shortly afterwards Baskerville and she were living together as man and wife. Although her husband was not known to be dead, she passed as Mrs. Baskerville. She accompanied him to London to visit Dodsley, and was everywhere received as his wife. It does not appear that his social position in Birmingham was at all impaired by this connection. He was very kind and attentive to Mrs. Eaves, and when Eaves died, Baskerville married the widow in June, 1764. They had one son, who died in infancy. Baskerville was inconsolable, and in a letter to Franklin gave the death of his son as one of the reasons for desiring to sell his type in France. He said: “Let the reason of my parting with it be the death of my son and intended successor.”

When Baskerville began the work that made him famous, he was a middle-aged man, fifty years old, who had amassed a large fortune, and was living in quiet comfort on his own estate. He was carrying on a very large and lucrative japanning business, which he continued to conduct during his life. He was a person of much consequence in Birmingham when he took up the matter of type-founding and printing.

As for Baskerville’s private character, we have the accounts of his friends and of his critics, and it is not easy to come to a just conclusion. Hutton, in his “History of Birmingham,”[5] says: “In private life he was a humorist; idle[6] in the extreme; but his invention was of 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 solemn as a ship of the line. During the twenty-five years I knew him, though in the decline of life, he retained the singular traces of a handsome man. If he exhibited a peevish[7] temper, we may consider good nature and intense thinking are not always found together. Taste accompanied him through the different walks of agriculture, architecture, and the finer arts. Whatever passed through his fingers, bore the lively marks of John Baskerville.”

Chambers, in his “Biographical Illustrations of Worcestershire,” gives an interesting sketch of Baskerville, in which his will is printed with the exception of those portions where, as, Mr. Chambers regrets to say, Baskerville “unblushingly avows not only his disbelief of, but his contempt for revealed religion, and that in terms too gross for repetition.” Chambers was evidently not a partial critic. He records the fact that Mr. Noble,[8] who well remembered Baskerville, says he taught his respected father to write, and he maintained an acquaintance with him as long as he lived. “I have been very often with him to Baskerville’s 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 a 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 lived with him in adultery many years. 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.”

Mr. Paterson, in a letter in Nichols’s “Literary Anecdotes,” wrote: “I could give you also a note on Baskerville, to demonstrate that he knew very little of the execution of typography beyond the common productions which are to be found every day in Paternoster-row, and therefore, in a comparative view, might readily conclude that he had outstript them all.” But, adds Chambers, “Dibdin, whose judgment in these matters few will call in question, says that ‘Rowe Mores, in his abuse of Baskerville, exhibits the painful and perhaps mirth-provoking efforts of a man kicking against the thorns. Baskerville was a wonderful creature as an artist, but a vain and silly man.’”

Many lies were told about Baskerville and his work.

The following from the “European Magazine” (December, 1785, page 463) is a fair sample. A correspondent, whose name is not disclosed, but who signs himself _Viator_, makes the following statement, to which Mr. Chambers gives place in his “Biographical Illustrations of Worcestershire:” “I was acquainted with Baskerville, the printer, but cannot wholly agree with the extracts concerning him, from Hutton’s History of Birmingham. It is true he was very ingenious in mechanics, but it is also well known he was extremely illiterate, and his jokes and sarcasms on the Bible, with which his conversation abounded, shewed the most contemptible ignorance of eastern history and manners, and indeed of every thing. His quarto edition of Milton’s Paradise Lost, with all its splendour, is a deep disgrace to the English press. He could not spell himself, and knew not who could. A Warwickshire country schoolmaster, of some parish charity school, we presume, was employed by him to correct this splendid edition, and that dunce has spelt many words in it according to the vulgar Warwickshire pronunciation. For example, many of the western vulgar clap an _h_ to every word beginning with an open vowel, or even the _w_, as _hood_ for _wood_, my _harm_ for my _arm_, _heggs_ for _eggs_, &c., &c., and again as viciously dropping the _h_ in verbs, as _ave_ for _have_, _as_ for _has_, &c., &c. Many instances of this horrid ignorance we find in the ingenious Baskerville’s splendid Milton, where _as_ is often put for the verb _has_, and _has_ for the conjunction _as_, with several others of this worse than _cockney_ family. Nor can I by any means agree with Mr. Hutton that ‘it is to the lasting discredit of the British nation that no purchaser could be found for his types.’--What was the merit of his printing?--His paper was of a finer gloss, and his ink of a brighter black than ordinary; his type was thicker than usual in the thick strokes, and finer in the fine, and was sharpened at the angles in a novel manner; all these combined gave his editions a brilliant rich look, when his pages were turned lightly over; but when you sit down to read them, the eye is almost immediately fatigued with the gloss of the paper and ink, and the sharp angles of the type; and it is universally known that Baskerville’s printing is _not_ read; that the better sort of the London printing is infinitely preferable for USE, and even for real sterling elegance. The Universities and London booksellers therefore are not to be blamed for declining the purchase of Baskerville’s types, which we are told were bought by a Society at Paris, where tawdry silk and tinsel is preferred to the finest English broad cloth, or even Genoa velvet.”[9]

This spiteful story has thus been in type and reproduced in one form and another for more than a hundred years. Nobody appears to have questioned it, and yet it is false, and maliciously so. An examination of the quarto edition of Milton’s “Paradise Lost” shows that “as” is never put for the verb “has,” and “has” is never put for the conjunction “as.” There is no such word in the book as “eggs,” and no such combination of words as “my arm.” It is impossible to find there the mistakes which _Viator_ says are in this book and make it “a deep disgrace to the English press.”

For some reason, probably because he did better work than other printers, and produced books without so much regard to profit as they were obliged to consider, Baskerville’s work was very much criticised by other printers in his time. Dr. Bedford said: “By Baskerville’s specimen of his types you will perceive how much the elegance of them is owing to the paper, which he makes himself as well as the types and the ink also; I was informed that whenever they come to be used by common pressmen and common materials they lose their beauty considerably.” It is now certain that he did not make his paper. Certainly he made it for no books except Virgil and the Milton. Rowe Mores,[10] in “English Typographical Founders and Founderies,” 1778 (page 86), said: “Mr. Baskerville of Birmingham, that enterprizing place, made some attempts at letter-cutting, but desisted and with good reason. The Greek cut by him, or his, for the University of Oxford is execrable. Indeed, he can hardly claim a place amongst letter-cutters. His typographical excellence lay more in his trim, glossy paper to dim the sight.” In a note upon this passage John Nichols said: “The idea entertained by Mr. Mores of the ingenious Mr. Baskerville is certainly a just one. His glossy paper and too sharp type offend the patience of a reader more sensibly than the innovations I have already censured.”

Nichols was a rival printer. He was apprenticed to William Bowyer, of whom he was an executor and the residuary legatee. All his prejudices were against Baskerville and his work. He wrote many books, but they were mostly by hirelings, the blunders only being his own. He reached the summit of his ambition when he became Master of the Stationers’ Company in 1804.

The following letter from Franklin explains the prejudice and ignorance with respect to Baskerville’s work: “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 the 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 on 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 himself is an author), and yet never discovered the painful disproportion in them, till he thought they were yours.”