Caslon&Co., passed down through various members of the family until 1937, when the rights were transferred to Stephenson Blake.Ĭheck out the free scanned version of A Specimen of Printing Types (1785, Galabin and Baker, London) by William Caslon III. His son, William Caslon II, took over the business upon his death in 1766. His types were just as highly regarded in America, where the Declaration of Independence was set in Caslon. The English reliance on Dutch types had finally come to an end. That is, I think, their secret: a perfection of the whole, derived from harmonious but not necessarily perfect individual letterforms.Ĭaslon's fame stems largely from his specimen of 1734, showing types that were considered to be superior to the Dutch types that inspired them. His letters when analyzed, especially in the smaller sizes, are not perfect individually but in their mass their effect is agreeable.

Dutch fonts were monotonous, but Caslon's fonts were not so.

Updike: While he modelled his letters on Dutch types, they were much better for he introduced into his fonts a quality of interest, a variety of design, and a delicacy of modelling, which few Dutch types possessed. His major influences were the Dutch designers Christoffel van Dijck and Dirck Voskens. The first fonts cut by Caslon were for Arabic (1725), Hebrew (1726) and Coptic (1731), but the designs date back to 1722. His Caslon Roman Old Face was cut between 17. His William Caslon Foundry was established by him in 1719, and would operate in London for over 200 years. William Caslon I was born in Worcestershire in 1692. TYPE DESIGN INFORMATION PAGE last updated on

Big caslon italic font