Chapter 17

Types of Influence

As the twentieth century opened, there was a new design consciousness abroad amongst the printing and publishing fraternity. The Private Press Movement in Britain and America was bringing a much needed influence to bear on publishing houses and printers. The output of works from such enterprises as the Doves and the Ashendene presses and the influences of individuals such as T. J. Cobden-Sanderson, Emery Walker and the pioneering art education work of Lethaby at the Central School of Arts and Crafts in London did much to further the cause. Meanwhile, in the United States, the movement influenced by such presses as the Merrymount, Camelot, Riverside, served to sharpen opinions and set standards of design both in America and in Europe. The shift from the use of the monotonous Modern typefaces which had started slowly with the creation of Old Style by Miller and Richard had, by the 1890s become widely accepted. For better or worse, founders now in terms of the quality of letter designs, began to issue Old Style in many variant forms; some almost pirated from other foundries, others designed and cut with variations in set, weight and x-height. There was a conscious awareness amongst typefounders on both sides of the Atlantic that shared designs either bought, sold or traded, was to their mutual advantage. The wealthy Private Press printers, particularly in America, had designed and commissioned founts which were in many respects often superior to those produced commercially. In 1927, Beatrice Warde, writing under her nom de plume of Paul Beaujon, put the matter quite succinctly: It seems that so far this century has failed to establish one new type face to distinguish its books. There is a new style, but Caslon and the other stand-bys have been cast for three generations before ours. There are new advertising faces that represent faithfully our age and ideals: so faithfully that they are altogether unfit for book printing.¹

The extensive collection of punches and matrices from the Sir Charles Reed foundry had been brought to Sheffield and put into storage in one of the cellars of the house in Upper Allen Street. Out of a genuine personal interest and later, as result of encouragement from leading typographers, R. G. Blake began in earnest to assess in detail the stock which had been acquired. When leading typographers and typefounders enquired about seemingly long lost eighteenth and early nineteenth century typefaces which had disappeared from public view, Blake was able to respond. His diligent researches revealed that the company had acquired a much richer source of typographical material than was at first thought. Suddenly, the seemingly ancient, outdated and worthless Reed stock was revealing typographical jewels of great potential. Admittedly, the punches and matrices were all too often not in a condition which made them immediately usable, but Stephenson, Blake held the originals which could be refurbished to match the current production methods. A number of the Reed founts were highly popular and as a result, Ronaldson and Italian, which were known to be very saleable typefaces were quickly rejustified and cast in Point-body sized moulds. The Reed foundry’s Old Style and Clarendon series were reissued and they attracted a good deal of attention and sold well. Under the new partners, a brisk policy of issues was planned in an effort to keep ahead of competition. Now that the Typefounders’ Association had agreed to end their trade advertising ban, Stephenson, Blake began designing and printing insets for the trade magazines and displayed type specimens. A typeface which had been cut originally at Fry’s Foundry in the 1770s was presented as Georgian Old Face in a specimen booklet issued in 1907. A great deal of effort was then made to finalise a series of Old Styles, created in-house and these also appeared in 1907. The series showed promise, but unfortunately the design was overshadowed by the appearance and universal acclamation of the Cheltenham series from America.

In the bids for acquiring popular American typefaces, competition was intense. The three members belonging to the Typefounders’ Association now vied with each other to obtain design rights. An example of this arose in the case of the Cheltenham series which caused Stephenson, Blake considerable disappointment. The typeface had been designed by Bertram Goodhue in 1896, for Daniel Berkeley Updike, for use at the Cheltenham Press, New York. The design attracted a good deal of attention in America and was being taken up commercially by the American Type Founders company, where it was subsequently developed by M. F. Benton who produced a full series with eighteen variations. Its commercial appearance became an instant success and it was a design which Stephenson, Blake particularly coveted. However, Sydney Caslon, much to the chagrin of H. K. Stephenson, had made his bid by cablegram and successfully obtained the design rights for production of it in Britain. The Cheltenham series became an instant success in Britain and brought both profit and credit to the Caslon Company. The Sheffield foundry urgently needed a similar face in order to compete with Caslon.The Windsor series, which had been designed by Pechey and launched after his death, was a characterless and somewhat stylised Venetian roman which, although it was launched in 1905, looked singularly weak when compared with Cheltenham. To counter the situation, Hanson, the London manager, H. K. Stephenson and R. G. Blake studied the Cheltenham design and developed a version which was, after considerable correction and modification, produced under the direction of J. E. Uttley, the chief punchcutter. Whilst the principals congratulated themselves on devising a ‘Cheltenham style’ of letter, which they issued in 1909 as the Winchester series, in a later age, the company may well have had a case of plagiarisation of design brought against it. However, for the time being they had at least kept abreast of their main competitors—H.W. Caslon.

The now constant stream of new typefaces coming on to the market was not universally acceptable. The members of the Arts and Crafts Movement and more particularly the Private Press Movement had, for over twenty-years, taken somewhat puritanical stances both in their writings and in the books which they designed and printed. Whilst William Morris and his followers basked in mediaevalism and the art world expressed its delight with the works of the Kelmscott Press, it was the productions of the Private Presses which would have the greater influence on both designers and printers. As the twentieth century opened it was with a good deal of contempt that the designers, artists and literati viewed many of the type designs which the typefounders were offering.

On the 28th September 1911, The Times Literary Supplement printed an article entitled The Influence of the Kelmscott Press.² The nature of it was a review of a group of five books produced respectively by Cobden-Sanderson; St. John Hornby; the Oxford University Press (a book printed from a Greek fount designed by Robert Proctor); Philip Lee Warner, printer to the Medici Society, and a work produced by Chatto and Windus. They were essentially products of the influencing Private Press Movement even though two were run-of-the-press editions. The author carefully reviewed each of the five works and usefully analysed, compared and contrasted them with Morris’s typography and book production. Having set the scene with a very scholarly appraisal, the author then proceeded to comment on typefounding: We must add a word about typefounding. There is no more dismal sight than the pages of a modern typefounder’s specimen book which seems to gather together some of the worst examples of the taste of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in a kind of museum of horrors. The first typefounders formed their types from the beautiful which they found in contemporary or early manuscripts … when the alphabet became cast in lead, its growth presently ceased, and with its growth its life. Though new founts and new fashions in types have been invented from time to time, they have been inspired from no living source. The mummy keeps the form of the living body, but, twist and turn and robe its limbs as we may, it has neither comeliness nor life. The author having finally reflected on the work and influence of Morris pleads: May we not hope that our typefounders may also come under the influence of the movement, and that the modern calligrapher may design alphabets formed naturally and beautifully, not slavishly copied from any model, however fine, free from affectation and from eccentricity, which may fulfil all the practical requirements of modern book type? ³ The Museum of Horrors article caused both consternation and anger within the Typefounders’ Association. This was hardly surprising. Even though the elderly Sir Henry Stephenson who had dominated the Association for so many years was dead, H. K. Stephenson and R. G. Blake virtually held sway within The Ring—now embracing but three member companies. Stephenson, Blake were particularly annoyed for they regarded the article as a slur on the Sheffield foundry. Whilst the attack did not directly cite Stephenson, Blake, it was clearly directed at them and linked to their then recently issued 1911 specimen book, the contents of which had been well-publicised in the trade press. As a riposte to the adverse comments, a separate specimen booklet was prepared entitled: Old Style Book Letter. In presenting it, the commentary heralded: Every British printer has, for the first time a series of eighteenth century book letter, which, while enabling him to please the taste of his most fastidious customers, will not oblige him to forgo the labour-saving advantage to be derived from types cast on point-bodies.⁴

H. K. Stephenson was not to be outdone by the TLS. He wrote to the Editor of The Times and suggested that an article be written on the economic and cultural success of the city of Sheffield. On the 22nd November 1911, a feature appeared with the heading: SHEFFIELD—the Industrial Capital of Yorkshire. There was no specific reference to Stephenson, Blake or to typefounding, but there was a reference to Sir Henry Stephenson and the contribution which he had made to the establishment  of the University of Sheffield. The article also had other uses. Early in 1912, the company issued a booklet entitled: The Story of Sheffield and Typefounding. The preface carried a reprint of The Times article of the previous year.

The article which appeared in The Times Literary Supplement was in some ways an honest reflection of the period. A good deal of hypocrisy had arisen amongst both typefounders and printers relating to the influences which had become manifest. When it suited the case, there was much admiration for the works of the Kelmscott and the Private Presses; at other times they voiced their opinions that the works of the Private Presses were nothing more than products of dilettantes who had little idea of the real world of commerce. In truth there was a place for both fine-book production and commercial printing, but the attack by The Times Literary Supplement touched upon an internal weakness, that of a lack of typographical sensitivity on the part of typefounders and, in the case of the Stephenson, Blake foundry, on the principals who owned it. However, Stephenson, Blake, in common with other founders, facing ever-reducing orders for text types realised their market was changing. The company needed to orientate itself to meeting the needs of printers and advertisers and their eagerness for the latest fashion in display and jobbing types. The rights for producing Hallamshire Old Style, Flemish Condensed and Expanded were acquired from the Inland Type Foundry of Chicago; Washington Text from the Keystone Type Foundry and Westminster Old Style, De Vinne, Spartan and Clearface from the American Type Founders. Although the throughput of the new founts was quite remarkable—demanding a quicker turn round of prepared matrices and cast type—the newly made arrangements for sharing and acquiring popular typefaces for which there was a ready market eased the problem of the search for creative punchcutters and designers. It was now a situation of following the typographical fashion of the time and of acquiring production rights in advance of other founders. Whilst acquiring new typeface designs by purchase or exchange was one method, another was copying or plagiarising. During Sir Henry Stephenson’s time as managing partner, he was ever ready and willing to buy any designs which he thought had commercial merit, but flatly refused to sell or trade any of his own foundry’s stock. He maintained this strategy within the Typefounders’ Association where he led the strongest of efforts to get legislation tightened to protect typeface designs. In practice, double standards existed. Whilst publicly Stephenson, Blake fought tenaciously for legal protection, they were not averse to pressing the margins of plagiarisation to the limit, particularly in respect of the Windsor series. The matter came to a final though unsatisfactory conclusion in 1916. The typefounding and engineering company of Legros and Grant had been asked to supply matrices to a printing company, Roberts and Newton. The designs which had been requested closely resembled the Windsor and Chatsworth series, two typeface designs to which Stephenson, Blake were entitled to protection under the terms of the copyright Act of 1911. Legros and Grant contended that the design protection covered the whole of the seventy-six characters and symbols per see and argued the case that registration and copyright related to the whole and not to every individual character. Stephenson, Blake contended that the use of any or all was an infringement of the copy-right. Mr. Justice Eve, in summing up presented ambiguous findings and granted leave of appeal to both parties to challenge what appeared to be a very negative decision. H. K. Stephenson made every effort to take the matter into the Court of Appeal but Counsel seems to have advised against it. Consequently the matter was quietly dropped.⁵