Note 623 — Chapter XV · JOSEPH AND EDMUND FRY, 1764.

The pedigree of the matrices is indicated, as far as can be ascertained, by the initials (see our note 2 at p. 227); but in several cases, particularly in the case of the Blacks, the origin is considerably more remote than the foundry named. The error of inferring anything as to their origin from the names of famous old printers appearing on the drawers in which they were stored at James’s foundry has already been pointed out—see ante, p. 230. Several of these founts Dr. Fry appears to have received in a defective state, necessitating in some cases a complete re-justifying of the matrices, and in others the cutting of a considerable number of punches, and casting on bodies which did not always agree with those named in the sale Catalogue. This circumstance will account for many of the apparent discrepancies between the original founts and the renovated founts as they appear in the Type Street specimens.