This book is concerned with the eighteenth-century typographer, printer, industrialist and Enlightenment figure, John Baskerville (1707-75). Baskerville was a Birmingham inventor, entrepreneur and artist with a worldwide reputation who made eighteenth-century Birmingham a city without typographic equal, by changing the course of type design. Baskerville not only designed one of the world’s most historically important typefaces, he also experimented with casting and setting type, improved the construction of the printing-press, developed a new kind of paper and refined the quality of printing inks. His typographic experiments put him ahead of his time, had an international impact and did much to enhance the printing and publishing industries of his day. Yet despite his importance, fame and influence many aspects of Baskerville’s work and life remain unexplored and his contribution to the arts, industry, culture and society of the Enlightenment are largely unrecognized. Moreover, recent scholarly research in archaeology, art and design, history, literary studies and typography, is leading to a fundamental reassessment of many aspects of Baskerville’s life and impact, including his birthplace, his work as an industrialist, the networks which sustained him and the reception of his printing in Britain and overseas. The last major, but inadequate publication of Baskerville dates from 1975. Now, forty years on, the time is ripe for a new book. This interdisciplinary approach provides an original contribution to printing history, eighteenth-century studies and the dissemination of ideas.
Table of Contents:
List of Figures vii Acknowledgements xi Foreword xiii Timeline xv
Baskerville Family Tree xvii
Introduction: John Baskerville: Art and Industry of the Enlightenment 1 Caroline Archer-Parré and Malcolm Dick 1 The Topographies of a Typographer: Mapping John Baskerville since the Eighteenth Century 9 Malcolm Dick 2 Baskerville’s Birmingham: Printing and the English Urban Renaissance 25 John Hinks 3 Place, Home and Workplace: Baskerville’s Birthplace and Buildings 42 George Demidowicz 4 John Baskerville: Japanner of ‘Tea Trays and other Household Goods’ 71 Yvonne Jones 5 John Baskerville, William Hutton and their Social Networks 87 Susan Whyman 6 John Baskerville the Writing Master: Calligraphy and Type in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries 113 Ewan Clayton 7 A Reappraisal of Baskerville’s Greek Types 133 Gerry Leonidas 8 John Baskerville’s Decorated Papers 151 Barry McKay and Diana Patterson 9 The ‘Baskerville Bindings’ 166 Aurélie Martin 10 After the ‘Perfect Book’: English Printers and their Use of Baskerville’s Type, 1767–90 185 Martin Killeen 11 The Cambridge Cult of the Baskerville Press 206 Caroline Archer-Parré
Appendix 1 The ‘Baskerville Bindings’ 222 Appendix 2 Members of the Baskerville Club 226 Appendix 3 Comparative Bibliography 230 Further Reading 248 General Bibliography 255 Notes on the Contributors 260 Index 263
About the Author :
Caroline Archer-Parré is Professor of Typography at Birmingham City University, Director of the Centre for Printing History & Culture and Chairman of the Baskerville Society. She is the author of The Kynoch Press, 1876-1982: the anatomy of a printing house, (British Library, 2000); Paris Underground (MBP, 2004); and Tart cards: London’s illicit advertising art (MBP, 2003). Caroline is currently Co-investigator on the AHRC-funded project, ‘Letterpress Printing: past, present, future’. Malcolm Dick is Director of the Centre for West Midlands History at the University of Birmingham. He directed two history projects in Birmingham between 2000 and 2004: the Millennibrum Project, which created a multi-media archive of post-1945 Birmingham history and Revolutionary Players which produced an online resource of the history of the West Midlands region. Malcolm has published books on Joseph Priestley, Matthew Boulton and the history of Birmingham and co-directs the Centre for Printing History & Culture.
Review :
'Due to the variety of its chapters, and the depth of their investigations, John Baskerville: Art and Industry of the Enlightenment is a most welcome title, and one can only hope that it may be the first in what will become a series of 'Baskerville studies' addressing a range of topics from authors in a variety of fields.
'Dan Reynolds, Journal of the Printing Historical Society
'This collection of papers is a useful contribution to the study of Baskerville [...] There is valuable original work here, especially in filling out some of the gaps in our knowledge of Baskerville’s life.'
John Feather, Publishing History
'This enterprising volume of essays makes a determined effort to…underline the influence that Baskerville had in the Midlands, Britain and beyond.'
Paul Elliott, Midland History
‘This book brings to light the life of this relatively unknown 18th century figure…This volume is an important addition to the story of Birmingham and the power of networks that brought together art and industry during the Industrial Revolution.’
The William Shipley Group Bulletin
Reviews'A fascinating account of the printer, type designer, and manufacturer, John Baskerville, which sheds new light on the history of this polymathic figure. Focusing on previously unexplored details of his personal life, the book explores his contribution to fields beyond printing, and his relationship with the broader technologies and ideas of Enlightenment Birmingham.'
Dr Freya Gowrley, University of Edinburgh
