When Baskerville died in 1775 his apparatus for type-founding was sold by his widow, Sarah, to Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais (1732–99) for £3,700. Beaumarchais regarded Baskerville’s type as the most beautiful printing types known and used them in the production of his Kehl editions of Voltaire’s works. Subsequently Beaumarchais took the punches to Paris where […]
On 11 July the Small Performances Team gathered for a one-day symposium and hands-on workshop, at the School of Jewellery (BCU), Birmingham. With the theme of ‘Capturing Craft’ the workshop united jewellers, engravers, blacksmiths and other artisans together with printing historians, heritage scientists, archaeologists, and type designers in order to bring multiple perspectives to the […]
On 8 March, Cambridge University Library was thrilled to host the launch of the AHRC-funded project ‘Small performances: investigating the typographic punches of John Baskerville (1707-75) through heritage science and practice-based research’. Around sixty attendees at the launch enjoyed a series of short talks from the project team, and displays of eighteenth-century materials relating to […]