Caslon’s Circular

Subtitle: “Published Quarterly for Gratuitous Circulation”

Start Date(s)

  • 1875 (Bigmore and Wyman)

End Date(s)

  • 1895 (NSTC )
  • 1929 (Ulrich and Kup)
  • 1934 (COPAC)

Editor(s)

City

  • London, England (journal itself)

Circulation Count

  • 5000 (Hubbard)

Type of Content

  • "Distinctive feature: type and new designs in type" (Mitchell's 1895, p. 238)
  • Contains (in October 1875) "information on type and new designs in type, supplement, law printing, type founding, combination borders, the printing trade, a suggestion, to correspondents" (Waterloo Online)
  • Also contains (in Spring 1896) "our recent type-founding novelties, reduced prices of locking-up apparatus, the linotype machine" (Waterloo Online)
  • "In 1878–79 it [Caslon's Circular] published articles by [Theodore Low] De Vinne about the point system for measuring type. Smith was a leading campaigner for its introduction" (Foster p. 11)

Notes

  • Title changes to Caslon's Circular and Type Founder in 1904 (COPAC)
  • This periodical was not published between February 1915 and February 1921 (COPAC); Brown says it suspended publication from 1915-20 (Brown p. 382)
  • “This is primarily intended as a medium for the circulation of the specimens of the new types of the Caslon foundry, but it contains practical information for printers and others. The first number was issued January 1st, 1875, being edited by Mr. T. W. Smith, the acting manager, and one of the proprietors of the celebrated foundry. It consists of 4 pages, with occasional specimen sheets as supplements” (Bigmore and Wyman vol. 2, p. 164; "The Bibliography" vol. 7, no. 74, 15 Feb. 1881, p. 35)
  • "Gentlemen, we have the pleasure to draw your special attention to the type in imitation of Type-writing with which this Specimen is printed. It is a reproduction of the characters used in the best Type-writing Machines now being gradually adopted in this country. In America the use of these Machines by the commercial world is almost universal, and their equally extensive adoption in this country is only a question of time. Circulars that are issued from the press, no matter how important, are very often banished unread to the limbo of the waste paper basket, and we, therefore, think it a pardonable ruse so to imitate Type-writing that the same attention shall be secured for Letterpress Printing as for Lithographic facsimiles. Yours faithfully, H.W. Caslon & Co" (Caslon Letter Foundry, no. 59, Printing Types p. 111)
  • Smith "used Caslon’s Circular to vocally oppose the piracy of type using electrotyping and defend themselves against trade publications that criticised them for ‘obstructing the progress of mechanical invention’. This was untrue; Smith was an early pioneer of combing matrices in a line, a precursor to the linotype machine" (Foster p. 11)
  • Publisher's address: 22 Chiswell St., London (BTL19 Database)

Subject Categories

Sources that Discuss this Journal

  • BLT19
  • “The Bibliography” vol. 7, p. 35
  • Bigmore and Wyman vol. 2, p. 164
  • Brown and Stratton p. 382
  • COPAC
  • Foster pp. 11-12
  • Hubbard p. 1710
  • Mitchell’s 1895 p. 238
  • NSTC
  • Printing Types p. 111
  • Ulrich and Kup p. 53, 202
  • Waterloo (online)

Works Cited

  • “The Bibliography of Printing.” The Printing Times and Lithographer, vol. 7, nos. 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, Jan.-June 1881. HathiTrust.
  • Bigmore, E. C., and C. W. H. Wyman. A Bibliography of Printing. 1880. Oak Knoll P and the British Library, 2001.
  • BLT19 Trade and Professional Press Database 1900. Created by Andrew King, 2020.
  • Brown, Peter, and George B. Stratton. World List of Scientific Periodicals Published in the Years 1900-1960. 4 vols. Butterworths, 1963.
  • COPAC: Consortium of Online Public Access Catalogues. Library Hub Discover, JISC.
  • Foster, David. Another Bloody Caslon. 2012. Royal Academy of Art in The Netherlands, Master's Thesis in Type and Media.
  • Hubbard, Harlan P. Hubbard's Newspaper and Bank Directory of the World. Hubbard, 1882-84. Google Books.
  • Mitchell’s Newspaper Press Directory and Advertiser’s Guide. C. Mitchell, 1895.
  • NSTC (Nineteenth-Century Short Title Catalogue), in C19: The Nineteenth-Century Index, Chadwyck-Heaney, 2020. ProQuest.
  • Printing Types & Ornaments. Cambridge UP, 1909. Google Books.
  • Ulrich, Carolyn F., and Karl Kup. Books and Printing: A Selected List of Periodicals, 1800-1942. W. E. Rudge, 1943.
  • The Waterloo Directory of English Newspapers and Periodicals: 1800-1900, edited by John S. North. North Waterloo Academic Press, 2009.
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