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II.
In attributing the Mein and Fleeming type to John Baine, a new pattern in American type history is made possible, a new continuity with British typography established. In his essay on "British Influences upon American Printing," recently published in his Typographic Heritage (1949), Mr. Wroth recognizes the rôle played by John Baine and his grandson in casting the type used by Thomas Dodson in printing Rees's Encyclopœdia, although the face used is a traditional face unlike the bold-face roman of Mein and Fleeming.
Continuing, Mr. Wroth speaks of the work of Binny and Ronaldson of Philadelphia, the first type founders to achieve significant and lasting stature in America. Both were Scotchmen, and in the partnership it was Binny who contributed the knowledge of printing and of punch cutting. Although they began business in 1797 their first specimen book of types did not appear until 1812. Of the two distinct faces displayed, the first was a transitional letter which, recast in recent times, has been named "Oxford," and, even more recently, has been recut by the Linotype Company as "Monticello."
The other face cast by Binny and Ronaldson is one which, in Stanley Morison's words, is a "fat grotesque," one of the "bold, bad faces" which none the less achieved great popularity. But in speaking at some length of this face Mr. Wroth does not call attention to the fact that its resemblance to the Baine type is most remarkable. The obvious question arises: Was there any connection between Baine and his fellow Scots Binny and Ronaldson?
The evidence for such a connection is at present inconclusive. The research in which Mr. P. J. Conkwright, of the Princeton University Press, is currently engaged concerning Binny and Ronaldson should ultimately clarify the matter. In the meantime we do know that Baine and his grandson came to Philadelphia around 1790, where shortly thereafter the elder man died. There is reason to believe that Binny was as a young man apprenticed to Baine, and the ledgers of the firm record that on June 12, 1799, J. Baine (presumably the grandson) sold to Binny and Ronaldson $300 worth of tools. What these tools included is not specified, but in the sale there is evidence of continuity. That the boldface Binny and Ronaldson type is a lineal descendant of the Baine face becomes a very real possibility.[7]
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