Richard Austin (punchcutter)
Encyclopedia
Richard Austin was an English
punchcutter
. He was the original cutter of typefaces Bell, Scotch Roman, and Porson. Born in London, he studied wood engraving under Thomas Berwick before joining John Bell's
British Letter Foundry in 1788 as a punch-cutter, where he worked until the foundry closed in 1798. He then worked for William Miller's foundry in Edinburgh before founded his own Imperial Letter Foundry in London. Stanley Morison
calls his Bell the first British example of a Didone or Modern Typeface, though more recent opinion holds that his Scotch Roman was the first truly Modern British face.
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
punchcutter
Punchcutting
In traditional typography, punchcutting is the craft of cutting letter punches in steel from which matrices were made in copper for type founding in the letterpress era. Cutting punches and casting type was the first step of traditional typesetting. The cutting of letter punches was a highly...
. He was the original cutter of typefaces Bell, Scotch Roman, and Porson. Born in London, he studied wood engraving under Thomas Berwick before joining John Bell's
John Bell (publisher)
John Bell was an English publisher. The Dictionary of National Biography has Charles Knight calling Bell a "mischievous spirit, the very Puck of booksellers." His 109-volume, literature-for-the-masses Poets of Great Britain Complete from Chaucer to Churchill, which rivaled Samuel Johnson's Lives...
British Letter Foundry in 1788 as a punch-cutter, where he worked until the foundry closed in 1798. He then worked for William Miller's foundry in Edinburgh before founded his own Imperial Letter Foundry in London. Stanley Morison
Stanley Morison
Stanley Morison was an English typographer, designer and historian of printing.Born in Wanstead, Essex, Morison spent most of his childhood and early adult years at the family home in Fairfax Road, Harringay...
calls his Bell the first British example of a Didone or Modern Typeface, though more recent opinion holds that his Scotch Roman was the first truly Modern British face.
Typefaces
- Austin's Pica No. 1 (c. 1918) .
- BellBell (Monotype)Bell is a Scotch Roman typeface designed in 1788 by Richard Austin. After a short initial period of popularity, the face fell until disuse until it was revived in the 1930s, after which it enjoyed an enduring acceptance as a text face.-Visual Distinctive Characteristics:Characteristics of this...
(1788, British Letter Foundry), revived 1949 by Stephenson BlakeStephenson BlakeStephenson Blake was a British Type foundry, based in Sheffield, England. Active from the 19th century until the 1990s, it remained the last active typefoundry in Britain.-Type Founding:... - Fry's Ornamented (1796, British Letter Foundry), revived 1931 by Monotype CorporationMonotype CorporationMonotype Imaging Holdings is a Delaware corporation based in Woburn, Massachusetts and specializing in typesetting and typeface design as well as text and imaging solutions for use with consumer electronics devices. Monotype Imaging Holdings is the owner of Monotype Imaging Inc., Linotype,...
- PorsonPorson (typeface)Porson is a typeface in the Greek alphabet based on the handwriting of the English classicist Richard Porson, who, as his biographer writes, "excelled ... in writing with neatness and beauty" and "wrote notes on the margins of books with such studied accuracy that they rivalled print".The face was...
(1806, Caslon FoundryWilliam CaslonWilliam Caslon , also known as William Caslon I, was an English gunsmith and designer of typefaces. He was born at Cradley, Worcestershire, and in 1716 started business in London as an engraver of gun locks and barrels, and as a bookbinder's tool cutter...
) - Scotch RomanScotch RomanScotch Roman refers to a class of typefaces popular in the early nineteenth century, particularly in the United States and to a lesser extent the United Kingdom...
(1813, William Miller/Miller & Richardson), revived 1907 by Monotype CorporationMonotype CorporationMonotype Imaging Holdings is a Delaware corporation based in Woburn, Massachusetts and specializing in typesetting and typeface design as well as text and imaging solutions for use with consumer electronics devices. Monotype Imaging Holdings is the owner of Monotype Imaging Inc., Linotype,...
. Also known as Georgian, Brimmer. Scotch Roman #2, is a 1920 revival by Linotype.