The Futility Closet podcast had an interesting episode a few weeks back that told the story of the creation of what many consider to be the most beautiful font ever designed: Doves type. In 1913 the type’s creator, Thomas James Cobden-Sanderson, threw the typeface into the Thames rather than let it fall into the hands of his unscrupulous business partner.
Designer Robert Green spent years attempting to recreate the font. Unsatisfied with the results, he went to the bridge that Cobden-Sanderson had stood on while pitching tons of typeface. Over one hundred years later in the shallow, muddy waters at the base of the bridge, Green found enough Doves typeface to perfect his digital recreation. You can now purchase Doves font through Green’s website.
William Morris made some equally impressive printing achievements with his Kelmscott Press, a last ditch effort to hold back the tides of industrialized mediocrity. I found a list of Kelmscott Press facsimiles that you can view online including John Ruskin’s The Nature of Gothic : A Chapter of The stones of Venice.
Call me fuddy-duddy, but I think the Cobden-Sanderson/Morris Arts and Crafts posse have a few things left to tell us about the importance of beauty in our lives.
I share your admiration of the Arts and Crafts movement and the efforts of Cobden-Sanderson and William Morris to resist the tide of industrialized mediocrity. However, sometimes I feel guilty about this because, if skilled craftspeople are to have a wage that allows a decent standard of living, their beautiful products can only be afforded by the rich.
This was certainly the case in the late 19th Century, when William Morris and friends were often mocked as “champagne socialists” who could only indulge in their advanced ideas of how society should work because they did not have to get up at 4:00am every day to go and work for 12 hours in a coal mine.
The mediocre industrialized products that became available for the first time, allowed the middle classes to buy things that had previously only been available to the rich. They were generally pleased with them and did not worry that they were ugly and of low quality, despite the derision of William Morris and friends.
Despite this, I still love the Arts and Crafts movement!