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Type
From the scale of prices above, we see that before 1749, when almost all entries included the type face used, the faces most frequently mentioned were:
1. Pica ............................................... | 52 |
2. English ............................................ | 41 |
3. Small Pica ......................................... | 37 |
4. Long Primer ........................................ | 18 |
5. Great Primer ....................................... | 6 |
6. Brevier ............................................ | 5 |
7. Pica and Long Primer ............................... | 2 |
8. Long Primer and Brevier ............................ | 2 |
9. Double Pica ........................................ | 1 |
10. Pica and Small Pica ................................ | 1 |
11. Bourgeois .......................................... | 0 |
12. Small Letter ....................................... | 0 |
__ | |
165 |
English, Pica, Small Pica
Appropriate for notes or small sheets:
Long Primer and some Brevier
After 1749, when Strahan simplified his ledger entries, he eliminated mention of any faces except those used in an unusual or "extra" manner. This absence of mention provides us with one of the three kinds of evidence about type after 1749. We would expect that the "standard" faces, established above, would not appear often in the entries but that the smaller faces might appear as "extra charges." Such is exactly the case. I could find only forty-nine instances after 1749 in which type face was named, either in the standard entries or in the
- Instances
- 1. English ............................................... 0
- 2. "Large Letter" [Great Primer?] ...................................... 1
- 3. Pica and Small Pica ................................... 1
- 4. Small Pica with Brevier ............................... 1
- 5. "Large Pica" [Double Pica? or large sheet of Pica?] ...................................... 2
- 6. Bourgeois ............................................. 2
- 7. Small Pica ............................................ 3
- 8. Pica .................................................. 5
- 9. Brevier ............................................... 6
- 10. Long Primer ........................................... 9
- 11. Small Letter .......................................... 19
When frequency is correlated with price in the scale, we find that Strahan's charges for standard and non-standard faces were completely consistent with the size appropriate for body or text work and notes or small work:
Cheapest: | Double Pica |
Great Primer | |
Intermediate: | English |
Pica | |
Small Pica | |
Extra Charge: | Bourgeois |
Long Primer | |
Brevier | |
High Extra Charge: | Small Letter |
(Non Pareil or Pearl) |
The other two kinds of evidence about type after 1749 are found in two ledgers which show (1) Strahan's purchases for the private business and (2) type on hand at the law house.
Purchases of Type for the
Private Business
Five pages in Ledger B show forty-one purchases of type from the firm of Alexander Wilson, typefounder in Glasgow, between 1754 and 1776, as well as four returns of unused or faulty type. Although these records do not show all of Strahan's purchases of type, they do show how much of each kind he purchased from one company over a period of years.
Since we do not know what type Strahan already had on hand, the only safe conclusion which can be drawn from this table is that he purchased more English type than any other kind from Wilson between 1754 and 1776; we cannot conclude, of course, that Strahan did not use Pica, etc., at all, for we know from the ledger entries that he did. Further, it is notorious that Scottish type height has always been different from London type height; some twentieth-century printing companies still keep old Scottish type separately cased. Therefore, Strahan probably bought his Pica, etc., from a Scottish founder rather than from his other regular supplier, William Caslon, whose type was used in the law house.
Type on Hand at the Law House
The amounts of type used in the law house seem to correlate more closely with the mention and lack of mention of type in the ledgers than do the type purchases from Wilson shown above. The following table shows the total poundage of old and new type on hand for the four presses of the law house when it was inventoried at the expiration
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