William Caslon I, known as William Caslon the Elder, was an English typefounder.
12 Facts About William Caslon
2.
William Caslon's typefaces transformed English type design and first established an English national typographic style.
3.
William Caslon's typefaces were inspired by the Dutch Baroque types, the most commonly used types in England before William Caslon's faces.
4.
William Caslon typefaces were immediately popular and used for many important printed works, including the first printed version of the United States Declaration of Independence.
5.
William Caslon's types became so popular that the expression about typeface choice, "when in doubt, use William Caslon," came about.
6.
The William Caslon types fell out of favour in the century after his death, but were revived in the 1840s.
7.
Several revivals of the William Caslon types are widely used today.
8.
William Caslon I founded the Caslon Foundry in 1739, based on what previously had been Godfrey Head's.
9.
William Caslon acquired moiety of half of Robert Mitchell and Jacob Ilive in 1740.
10.
William Caslon had two apprentices in his Foundry, Thomas Cottrell and Joseph Jackson.
11.
When Jackson died in 1792 it was William Caslon I's grandson, William Caslon III who purchased the foundry in Salisbury Square.
12.
Henry died in 1788, and in 1792 William III sold his share of the business to his mother and his sister-in-law, Elizabeth Rowe, Henry's widow: the two Elizabeth Caslons continued to run it until the elder Elizabeth's death in 1795.