Extensive Type Specimen – Fann Street Foundry - Schulz-Falster ...

Extensive Type Specimen – Fann Street Foundry
THOROWGOOD, William. 1832. Specimen of the Printing Type in
the Fann Street foundry, London. Thorowgood, letter founder to his
Majesty. By special appointment. London, Thorowgood, 1832.
£2,400
Tall 8vo, [iv] title within typographic border, and price list, ll. 203 of type
specimens (three leaves folded); original printed boards, rebacked and
recornered; a little bumped, else fine; with bookplates of Gustav Mori and the
Stempel reference library to front pastedown.
Comprehensive type specimen of the William Thorowgood of the Fann
Street Foundry, with extensive specimens - many of them ornamented and
large format, and also including ll. 20 of ornamental frames and borders.
William Thorowgood bought the type foundry with the proceeds of a
lucky draw in the state lottery. Within months he produced the first
specimen book, and within the next few years he introduced Hebrew,
Greek and Russian faces and also three frakturs. In 1828 he purchased the
Fry foundry and made many important additions to the stock, such a
numerous oriental and learned faces, as well as book fonts, titling and
flowers. In 1838 William Besley became a partner in the firm and when
Thorowgood retired in 1849, the company was renamed R. Besley and co.
(see Neil McMillan, An A - Z of type designers, p. 171 ff.).
This type specimen also includes early examples of the square serif type
face 'Egyptian', the first developments of sans-serif, which proved a highly
popular development.

'Robert Thorne was originally apprentice to Cottrell, and in 1794 acquired
his foundry, … Thorne died in 1820 and his foundry, then Fann Street, was
bought by William Thorowgood. … The Fann Street foundry descended to
the Reeds, and it was in this firm that Talbot Baines Reed acquired his
interest in the history of English letter foundries' (Berry & Johnson pp. 65-
66).
Thorowgood, together with Thorne, Figgins and Fry were avid followers
of new style type faces, derided by Hansard and Updike as 'fat-face' fonts.
[Provenance:] From the collection of the type historian and practician
Gustav Mori (1872-1950), employee of the Stempel type foundry, and from
the collection of the Stempel AG, the famous German printing house and
type foundry.
See Berry & Johnson, Catalogue pp. 65ff.; Bigmore-Wymann. III, 10; St. Bride
Catalogue p. 891; Updike II, 196 (all without this type specimen); see Talbot Baines
Reed, The Old English Letter Foundries, ed. By A. F. Johnson, 1952.