Short Overview of Influences and Changes in Print

in 18th-Century England

 

By the end of te sixteenth century, although the best printing was still French, its quality had declined greatly. In the seventeenth century, the French Imprimerie Royale was set up. A commission of experts deliberated for ten years, and eventually, in 1702, a radically new type was introduced. This was a mathematically-based alphabet, but still became popular, and because romain du roi was the exclusive property of the Imprimerie, other founders had to produce their own. The books produced in these types were abundantly adorned with a variety of decoration, from borders and printer's flowers to engraved illustrations. "Sumptuous" and "luxurious" for larger productions, "dainty," "pretty," charming" for the smaller, were the epithets applied to books of this style. See the 1785 edition of Pamela for an example that imitates such "sumptuous" taste, in which the decoration frequently overpowers the illustration and the text.

Pamela in 1785

Illustrated text-page from 1785 Pamela. Please click on the image for a larger view and more detail.

 

William Caslon's type, which appeared in 1722, remained throughout most of the century the popular type in England and the American colonies. Caslon's letters were based on the Dutch types used at the beginning of the century, refined in form and cut for fluent combination.

Caslon's types

William Caslon's types printed on a "specimen" from his shop

 

John Baskerville, a wealthy Birmingham lacquer manufacturer and japanner ("japan" is a sort of hard, black varnish), letter-carver and writing master, recut Caslon's letter in a somewhat wider, rounder, and lighter form. The type itself was not remarkably different from Caslons, although it was based on the living pen forms of the time. The way of setting the text, however, was dramatically different. Baskerville used very open spacing between the lines and extremely wide margins. The type was printed with unusual care on high-quality hot-pressed Whatman paper developed by Baskerville himself, with inks that were also his own products. Baskerville used no decoration at all, and this trend affected the course of typography both in England and in continental Europe. The quality of his printing was remarkable, too -- for a run of 1500, he would print 2000 copies so he could select 1500 sheets of even color; he also used his type only once.

 

Baskerville's printing of Congreve's works

The title page of William Congreve's collected works, printed in Birmingham by John Baskerville

Page from Congreve's works printed by John Baskerville

Text-page from Congreve's book

Sources Levarie, The Art and History of Books; Bartram, Five Hundred Years of Book Design