Baskerville 1706 - 1775

 

John Baskerville    

Born in Wolverley Worcestershire, John Baskerville was a successful and talented young man with however, little success in his own lifetime. This is a little about the man who is not only  considered a great name in type history but who also a man that changed the way of typography with his sytlised new letter form. 

 Moving to Birmingham in 1725, Baskerville worked as a Japanner (someone who made objects with decorative lacquer) and as an engraver of headstones. He also sidelined as a teacher and writing master. Following financial success of that venture he went on and set up a type foundry in 1750.

Baskerville had said he had always had a passion for the letter foundry and after all his workings and ventures, there is no one which I have pursed with so much pleasure and steadiness. I became insensibly desirous of contributing to the perfection of them.

He experimented with paper-making, ink manufacturing, type founding and printing, producing his first typeface in about 1754. After considerable period of experimentation in production processes, his first book Virgil appeared in 1757. This was followed by some fifty other classics.

In 1758 he became printer to the Cambridge University Press for which, in 1763, he published his masterpiece. His greatest work was a folio edition of the Bible, which represented a monumental advance upon the standards and practices of the time.

Things to consider with this design font……

·         Fine vertical lines mend the metal could wear out and break more often. Recasting with the original moulds would be needed.

·         Intention, many people did not like the new typeface as felt it unreadable on the eyes. Maybe because of the intense black ink against the brilliant white paper he used

This criticism came about because of the initiative way Baskerville had made changes to the ink consistency, adhesion and clarity that could be achieved with the new laid type of paper. This new type of paper was called wove and Baskerville had first used this on his book Virgil. (basicially a smooth paper)

Characteristics of Baskerville

Well balanced, delicate, tasteful, tradition, English, folksy, authorised.

Q UPPERCASE – tail extends well beyond its body width. Seldom seen beyond calligraphy.

The lowercase g is also a classic with its curled ear and its lower bowl left unclosed.

In words like Queen and Quest the tail almost underlines the u.

Baskerville is now classified as a transitional typeface, this is because the thiner serifs and the higher contrast between serifs.

The names Baskerville assigned to the types referred to their sizes, Great Primer, Double Pica Roman Capitals, Brevier Number 1 Roman ad Two-line Double Pica Italic Capitals.

Inspirational to Baskerville – Charles Nicolas COCHIN 1715 -1790 greatest influence to illustrative art in France, by age 22yrs was an accomplished artist and engraver. Also exceeded anything that could be attempted by type founders at his time. 

Inspired by Baskerville – Joseph Fry 1728 – 1787 both had been successful in other fields and from Birmingham. Then when on to type founding.

William Martin (bulmer) – brother of Robert who was Baskerville’s foreman, and had also trained under Baskerville.

BULMER bulmer Bulmer

If reading or looking close, I cant really tell much different between the two. I cant get bulmer in my list of fonts so could only use a picture of it.

 Maybe one to overlap later down the line andlook into…..    many  in the text picture above looks different I guess….The m’s ascender looks longer and the y’s tail. Doubting (the word above) looks taller while in italics, notice the b, and the i. Will test this out in my sketch book.

In the United States, around 1950, Baskerville was a favourite font and a lot of typefaces revived again with a great variety on offer.

 However, Baskerville really outdone itself by being only one of five initial typeface choices available on the Apple IPad iBook’s reading devices in April 2010.

Things for me to look into – Paper – uniform surface and watermarks? Why were binding and marketing to consider?

Transitional typefaces are a mix between Old Style and Modern typefaces. Examples include Baskerville, Georgia, and Times New Roman. The axis of symmetry is vertical as seen in the image below.

 

I used word to write this in baskerville old and copied onto blogger. I do hope this reads correct. I also looked at sources mainly from books and this site to double check my findings http://www.jquarter.org.uk/webdisk/morejbask.htm

I'm trying to read paragraphs and take notes, from the notes then trying to make sentences that I understand. To then write a report from notes, memory and visualising the story or text I've read. I feel this could help me find my own way of remembering and taking in information more efficiently.

I do tend to write lots of notes in artist talks but struggle to understand them once home. By practicing note writing I hope to get a better way of working to benefit myself.