[this is source for Timperley and for Bigmore & Wyman (also source for port.) pwr]
 
Hansard, Thomas Curson         
Typographia: an historical sketch of the origin and progress of the art of printing; with practical directions for conducting every department in an office: with a description of stereotype and lithography. Illustrated by engravings, biographical notices, and portraits ⁄ by T.C. Hansard       
London: Baldwin, Cradock, and Joy, 1825        
[2], xxiii, 939, [25], 4 leaves of samples, 27 leaves of plates (5 folding) ; 24 x 16 cm.
 
[Notes] [Portrait] [Text]
 
Notes:
 
Portrait of Millar Ritchie. Engraving by J. Lee.
from: Thomas Curson Hansard, Typographia (London, 1825)
[The paper used is odd: it is a wove calendared paper coated recto
only and rough on verso. The yellow does not appear to be a varnish.]

Text [pp. 610-612]
From Chapter IV, Fine Printing
 
[PAGE 610]
         Baskerville succeeded in producing a type of superior elegance and an ink which gave peculiar lustre to impressions from the type. The novel and unusual excellence which his works presented gave a stimulus to the exertions, and drew forth the emulation, of many of our countrymen. The first who started in this novel course was Mr. Millar Ritchie, a native of Scotland. About 1785 he carried on business in Albion Building, Bartholomew Close. An edition of the classics, in royal octavo, consisting of the works of Sallust, Pliny, Tacitus, Q. Curtius, Caesar, and Livy, was the work upon which this leading attempt at superior printing was made, at the expense of the Rev. Mr. [Henry] Homer, senior fellow of Magdalene College, Cambridge, who subsequently disposed of the whole impression (excepting those reserved for presents) to the bookseller, Mr. Thomas Payne. This work was also the means of first introducing Mr. Whatman's yellow wove royal paper. The next work was a quarto bible, in two volumes, upon the same paper, and two unique copies upon India paper, printed on one side only. A curious circumstance attended the printing of the bible: when it was far advanced toward a conclusion the two Universities, and the king's printer, obtained an injunction to prevent its progress: just at this period some person was printing a bible in Dublin, under the title of "Jackson's Family Bible," (without notes). Jackson, who was the university printer at Oxford, brought an action against the Irish printer. It was solemnly argued, and the Irish court determined that a restriction upon printing authentic copies of the Scriptures was not good, and the bible was proceeded with. Upon this Mr. Ritchie also took the liberty to proceed with his bible, and no more was heard of this injunctions.
 
         Another work executed by Ritchie, with uncommon splendour and and expense, was "Memoirs of the Count de Grammont," a small page, upon quarto, 1500 copies small paper, 500 on Whatman's wove royal, one copy on vellum, and three copies having this diminutive quarto page worked in the centre of a whole sheet of the royal paper.
 
         On his first diverging from the beaten track, Mr. Ritchie encountered considerable difficulties. The paper-maker, Mr. [PAGE 611] Whatman, and the ink-maker, Mr. Blackwell, contributed, most successfully, all their skills to his laudable design, but the want of journeymen to enter into the spirit of the undertaking with that extraordinary exertion of care and ingenuity which is indispensably required, was a difficulty the most discouraging, which he had long to contend with, and never wholly conquered; men he could get who by bodily strength would pull down the press, and give the impression, but the giving the colour required a skill and patience so far exceeding what pressmen had any idea of in this country, that Mr. Ritchie found himself obliged to manage the balls and beat every sheet of those works with his own hands. He had men to pull, but every other part was effected by his own personal labour.
 
         I have a copy of his bible now lying before me, and will venture to affirm, that in every requisite constituting good printing,--in richness and equality of colour through every page,--in that contrast of tints upon which the eye can dwell without fatigue, by the colour of both ink and paper,--it has not been surpassed by any work that has followed. It bears the date of M.DCC.XC.V. for John Parsons, Paternoster-row.
 
         What this living father of English fine printing may have been in personal appearance in those day, I have no means of showing; but what he is at the present day, when called from my warehouse, and from handling the sheets of this very work, to sit for his portrait may be here seen.
 
         It will hence be evident that Mr. Ritchie, notwithstanding all his perseverance and skill in find printing, had not the art of getting independence by his labours: he failed in business, and was succeeded in his efforts by Mr. Bulmer: Mr. Bensley and Mr. M'Creery followed, and from the presses of those gentlemen have issued some of the finest specimens of typography which this or any other country has produced. * [* It will not be thought foreign to the subject to observe here, that about this period Mr.Bell, in publishing his British Theatre, first set the fashion, which soon became general, of discarding the long {s}.] Emulation is a powerful principle in our nature, and the success which has attended their exertions, contributed in a great degree to give a new tone and character to the profession. The first efforts at fine printing tended to any thing but a general improvement in press-work. [PAGE 612] Every thing that was not paid for as "fine work" was "common work;" and by the pressmen, who, at the time alluded to were more masters of the trade than their employers, it was treated accordingly, perhaps for the sake of making the contrast the greater. Subsequent events, arising from the conduct of the workmen, together with the general introduction of the Stanhope and other improved presses, as well as machinery, having placed the choice of their workmen once more in the power of the masters, the general style of printing has become much improved.
 
 
[what follows is H's own take on fine printing and presswork:]
[PAGE 613]
         The printers who have paid most attention to fine printing have endeavoured to produce that delicacy and sharpness of appearance on paper which is peculiar to the copper-plate work; but through perfectly attained, the impression being, as I have before remarked, accomplished by such completely different means.
 
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