Volume 17–1 (Low Res).pdf

0
nee each month,
William Caslon
would host a party
at his house. The
evening was dedicated
to good food,
hearty ale (usually
brewed by Caslon himself), friendly
conversation and beautiful music. Often,
the music was provided by eminent masters
of the day. Caslon enjoyed those
parties, and the music that was their
unifying theme—almost as much as he
enjoyed the financial success which
made them possible.
William Caslon not only designed
very beautiful. typefaces that changed
the course of British typographic history;
the father of the Caslon typeface
was also a very wealthy man. He was a
shrewd businessperson who made
money quickly and easily. Also devoted
to life's gentler arts, Caslon loved literature,
drama, the fine art of conversation,
and above all—music. Once his
financial success allowed him to do so,
Caslon shared these many loves with
friends and acquaintances. Throughout
his life, Caslon was able to combine
business and art, pragmatism and passion
(perhaps, to some degree, this
explains why he married three times).
Many artistic people are also successful
in business, but few have been able to
combine these seemingly diverse
aspects of art and business with the ease
and natural grace of William Caslon.
Beautiful British Types
Caslon's art was typeface design. His
types were immediately recognized as
exceptionally beautiful communication
tools. Typographers and printers
throughout Europe unanimously
praised his work and made the Caslon
designs virtually overnight successes.
What makes Caslon's typefaces even
more extraordinary is that they were
not evolutionary designs based on the
firm foundation of earlier work. Prior to
Caslon, British typefounding and type
design standards were at an all-time low.
Typefounding was virtually a lost art
and "new" faces that were released were
not much more than poor copies of
designs from other European countries.
Caslon's types sprang from barren
(typographic) ground—a much more
remarkable occurrence than beautiful
designs produced in a friendly and
nurturing environment. Caslon type
set the benchmark for all future design
in Britain. It has been said that, just as
Shakespeare gave England a national
theatre, William Caslon gave the country
a national typeface.
Most type critics and historians contend
that, given sufficient talent, it is
relatively easy to create typefaces
which are beautiful, but that it is an
altogether more difficult task to produce
a type of high utilitarian value.
Caslon was able to do both. For over 200
years Caslon was the typeface of choice
among printers and typographers. It
was used to set virtually every form of
printed material: from fine books to
high pressure advertising, to, the most
mundane ephemera. Everyone
specified Caslon. It was a favorite of
Benjamin Franklin; the American Constitution
and Declaration of Independence
were both first typeset in Caslon;
George Bernard Shaw, the famous Irish
playwright, insisted that all his works be
set in Caslon. For generations, the
motto among printers was "When in
doubt, set it in Caslon:' The Caslon style
still holds the record for the type that
has been copied, revived, reissued, and
modified more than any other style.
Caslon the Businessman
Caslon's typefaces made him famous.
It was, however, his typefounding corn-
otialid1111111111116
AS411011111111111111114111111
AWAR11111111111011111 WM WSW
/NP411110111_11111111111111111NNESIM,
a^wa
11111211111110.1106194111111WISPEIMIS III
AILNIIHNI ITIZIOJIVItarlerw ISOM .11'
wwew^ iow
":12114 INN
_owl90,!retft. ow N Ull
Interior of the Caslon 13,pe Foundry, 1750
pany that made him wealthy. He built
England's first major typefounding
business. One that was so successful,
and so influential, that Caslon's types
were sold throughout Europe, and eventually
eclipsed in popularity all other
designs from competitive foundries.
Caslon's acumen enabled him to build a
business which permitted a comfortable
lifestyle and relaxed retirement
filled with the things he loved: art, literature,
his many friends and good music.
Like many famous type founders and
designers, William Caslon did not begin
his professional career in the typographic
arts. He was an accomplished
i I
and prominent engraver before he produced
any type. Caslon specialized in
engraving and personalizing gun barrels.
By all accounts, he could have
been as successful in this endeavor as
he was at creating type. Early in his
career his work was highly prized by
many wealthy patrons.
Engraving gun barrels would normally
not seem to be a prerequisite for
designing one of the world's most successful
typefaces, yet there were many
similarities between this craft and that
of typeface design in the 18th century.
Both demanded patience, artistic ability,
skill with engraving tools, and the
steady hand of a surgeon. Caslon developed
these skills early; and by age 24
had established his own, highly suc-
cessful engraving business. In addition
to this early profession, Caslon occasionally
took on other small assignments,
which also consistently aided in
his training for typefounding. Silver
casting provided him with the skill of
working with small objects cast from
molten metal, while the production of
bookbinders' stamps gave him additional
expertise in carving letters—in
relief, instead of in an engraved form.
Introduction to the
World of Typography
It was through these latter two crafts, in
fact, that William Caslon was eventually
introduced to the typographic arts.
John Watts, a successful bookbinder,
and William Bowyer, a noted British
printer, became aware of Caslon's artistic
ability and engraving skills, and
commissioned his services on several
occasions. Watts provided Caslon with
his first experience in type design by
employing the young craftsman to do
lettering and punch-cutting for a number
of his book covers. He also encouraged
Caslon to further pursue his
letter-cutting ability, promising him
personal support and introductions to
many of the leading printers of the day.
At about the same time, Bowyer saw,
in a local bookshop, one of the books for
which Caslon produced the cover
engraving. He inquired as to who did the
work and was eventually introduced to
Caslon. The two men quickly became
friends, and as a result Bowyer was
delighted to take Caslon to a variety of
printing offices; and on one occasion, a
prominent London typefoundry. Caslon
had never seen this part of the type
business. After their return from the
foundry, Bowyer asked Caslon if he felt
that he could manage both the art and
business of producing type. Caslon took
a night to think the idea over; the next
morning he embarked on a career path
that was to change the course of typographic
history.
William Caslon opened his fledgling
typefounding business in a small garret
with the help of loans from William
Bowyer, John Watts, and James Bettenham,
son-in-law to Bowyer, and a
prominent London printer. At the outset,
Caslon's new business succeeded
primarily on the financial and moral
support of his three patrons; Watts,
Bowyer and Bettenham. But his products
were of remarkable quality, and in
15