10/17/2025
Essay i wrote and will consider printing soon
John Baskerville and William Morris.
A Century apart, intricately linked.
One of the most fascinating aspects of studying History is the serendipity with which we find unexpected connections along the way. The individual facts of History can be seen like a series of shapeless pigments, revealing themselves without order, sometimes plainly other times mixed and blurred. It is up to us to make sense of them in a recognizable shape and value, to be able to speak about history as consistent and discuss the nuances of its colors.
In exploring the lives of John Baskerville and William Morris, I was struck by the similarities that connected their lives, despite the 100 years that separated them. Baskerville (1707-1775) obviously could have not known Morris (1834-1896) and Morris knew but didn't think much of Baskerville, especially his typeface and printing, and yet it was typeface design and printing that brought them together in an unpredictable way.
If there was one background that immediately places both in one general category it was the dedication and love of the decorative arts. Baskerville did not share the financial background of the Morris family, and our story starts with this distinction, where Baskerville created his own wealth from the japanning technique, or European lacquerware. Morris, on the other hand, came from a wealthy family, with his father's profitable copper mine. However, he is better known for his interest in the decorative arts leading him to design woven and embroidered textiles, stained glass, wallpaper, etc. Tradition, therefore, was what readily united these two individuals, with Morris looking back for the crafts of the Middle-Ages, Baskerville to the traditional Japanese crafts.
The similarities start with the interest in letters. Baskerville had an early employment as a self-taught stone engraver, anticipating Eric Gill. Likewise, Morris dedicated some of his time to calligraphy secondary to his interest in the early printed books, but it's important to emphasize that neither of the two had any experience in type casting or printing business. Further, both started rather late in life. Baskerville was 51, Morris was 57 when they began to dedicate their lives to printing. Their early interests in art caused both to enter the printing business with the focused intention of improving the aesthetics of the trade.
It is with printing that they more clearly came together. Essentially self-taught, Baskerville learned by observing other printers and studying the typefaces designed by William Caslon and therefore had a more direct contact with type founding. To design his own typeface, he used his background as a writing master in Birmingham (around 1720) as well as his experience as a stone cutter. Morris, on the other hand, developed his interest in type design after attending a lantern-slide lecture given by process printer Emery Walker on 15th November 1888. The slides with enlargement of letters from early printers, along with the proportions of the printed page, caused him to declare he must design a typeface and begin to print. Although Walker was not a letterpress printer, he was certainly well aware of the process and was able to guide Morris’ printing experiment. So, both designed their typeface without any previous experience propelled simply by artistic conviction
Regarding their method of printing, both were critical of the period in which they worked and both, in turn, were criticized regarding their style by their contemporaries, although less so regarding Morris. Most of his critics came later after his death. Baskerville was criticized not only regarding his printing but also his rather abrasive personality.
Their shared concern with materials further deepens the connection. Baskerville was dissatisfied with the available paper, so he contacted the paper maker James Watman of the Turkey mill. The collaboration led to discontinuing the use of laid paper and the creation of a new wove mould that formed a much smoother and hard surface paper. Further, the paper was then hot-pressed to produce the surface he wanted for his typeface. Morris did not get involved in paper making, but was very unhappy with the available supply, so he turned to Joseph Batchelor bringing him a 1473 paper sample from Bologna and demanded that the paper be not wove, but laid with discrete chain lines. The paper was also expected to be hard and made of linen, not cotton.
The other unifying factor was their concern with printing ink. Baskerville wanted blackness and gloss, not achievable with available inks. In this regard he worked with formulations of linseed oil, lamp black (soot) and resinous varnishes. This gave the page a certain distinctive brilliance to his pages. This was not at all what Morris wanted. He demanded a rich black ink and worked with Crossfield and Sons to obtain such color. However, he was still not satisfied with it and eventually went to Janecke and Scheemann in Germany to obtain the true matte black finish hat met with his expectations.
Both printed with less concern to the business of printing, but without question, both were focused with selling their wares and make products of lasting quality. A great distinction regards their different legacies. No British printer directly followed Baskerville’s example, though in Europe his typeface design was admired abroad and influenced the designs of Didot, Bodoni and Grandjean. After his death his widow was unable to sell his punches and matrices in England. They were eventually sold in France. The influence of Morris was far greater, although not so much of his type designs, which were much criticized by its over ornamentation and legibility. His major influence was primarily felt in the development of the Private Press Movement, a term he never used. His page design was copied early after his death but soon criticized for being overelaborated.
Finally, both had concerns with the mechanical side of the printing press itself. Baskerville not only redesigned some aspects of the press, adding metal for reinforcement, even actually manufacturing his own presses. Morris chose the commercially available Albion hand press rather than any of the more modern cylinder models. However, he did modify the Albion, especially to print the physically demanding Chaucer, by reinforcing and doubling the upright bar.
In conclusion these two individuals, who lived a century apart--one in Birmingham the other in London--turned out to have a surprising number of personal, artistic, and commercial shared affinities. Together they make the pigments of history come together in a rather unexpected way.
Andre Chaves
