Meunier

1872 · 58347 — <p>RARE TYPE CATALOGUE FROM 1870s</p><p>tall 8vo. 2 title leaf 6 price listpp. plus 84 leaves of type specimens printed on one side only plus 26 leaves of ornaments etc. printed on both sides original turquoise plain wrappers no wrapper spine very light and unobtrusive damp tide mark on many leaves throughout terminal leaves and price list leaves dusty and some other localised dustiness first few leaves little foxed but basically a very good and completely serviceable copy. Rare.</p><p>Can be dated quite accurately from the printed advertisements on the inside of the front wrapper. These are for books published by William M. Nimmo of Edinburgh and include Royal Illuminated Legends published by Nimmo but printed in colours in Belfast by Marcus Ward. The British Library date their copy as 1872 presumaby on the basis of their acquisition of it and Oxford date their copy as circa 1875. Also advertised is 'Royal Illuminatated Nursery Rhymes' similarly Edinburgh published by Belfast colour-printed by Marcus Ward in two series both dated to 1872 by Oxford National Library of Scotland and B.L.<br />The Edinburgh based type foundry of Miller and Richard designed and manufactured metal type from 1809 to 1952. "One of the most notable sets of designs of the foundry was a 'modernised old face' known as Old Style - an adaptation of the old-style serif fonts of the 1500-1800 period such as Caslon but regularised to match the greater evenness and grace expected in fonts by the mid-nineteenth century . Talbot Baines Reed wrote in 1887 in his History of the Old English Letter Foundries that the foundry had also won a reputation for extremely small-size type . The firm's work entered a decline with the arrival in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century of hot metal typesetting by which type was not sold to printers but cast by machine new for each job under the control of a keyboard. Some of its old style and modern typefaces were imitated by Monotype one of the major hot metal companies. It was wound up in 1952. According to James Mosley 'matrices for a few types were acquired by Stephenson Blake & Co. Ltd. Sheffield but most of the materials appear to have been dispersed'" wikipedia.<br />Apart from the numerous fonts of types for both book and newspaper text and a wide range of display types this catalogue shows their other products included italic types ornamental types music types Greek types and a huge range of ornaments and borders as well as illustrations eg. numerous sailing ships railway engines animals etc.</p> Miller and Richard paperback