A Specimen of Cast Ornaments on a New Plan
A 43-page quarto issued from the Caslon foundry in Chiswell Street, London, and printed by J. W. Galabin in 1786.
What it is
A 43-page quarto issued from the Caslon foundry in Chiswell Street, London, and printed by J. W. Galabin in 1786. It holds one page of copy and then pictures. The dated address says Mr. Caslon has completed, at great expense, a plan to improve the beauty of printing with cast metal ornaments that nearly equal copper-plates while costing less than the most contemptible wood-cuts. He submits them to the judgment of printers and patrons, declines to argue their usefulness because his readers can judge for themselves, and appeals to the foundry's long favour. The remaining pages print more than sixty numbered ornaments at full size, from sprays and border strips to cartouches with putti, musical trophies, Greek-key panels and full-page cuts of a rearing horse and a standing cow, with no captions. This copy carries a St Bride library stamp and a later handwritten price list.
Why read it now
The address is a short lesson in positioning by comparison. It does not ask the buyer to judge a new category; it places the product between two things he already prices, copper-plate above and wood-cut below, and claims the quality of one at less than the cost of the other. Research on reference prices agrees that buyers judge a new offer against the options they already know rather than on its own. Then the copy stops and the plates do the work, which is the right order for anything visual. What has dated: the claim to exceed everything seen in any country has no support, and most advertising codes now require proof for comparative claims; the deference to patrons reads as flattery; and the printed book gives no prices, so the cost comparison cannot be checked. Use: when your product sits between a premium import and a cheap local option in the Gulf, name both in one paragraph, then send a sample box numbered for ordering.
Passages worth keeping
Mr. CASLON having at length completed, with infinite Attention and at an inconceivable Expence, a Plan, he has for some Years had in Contemplation, to improve the Beauty of Printing
يبدأ بالحديث عن الجهد والتكلفة الكبيرين، فيجعل ارتفاع تكلفة الصنع دليلًا على الجودة قبل أن يسأل القارئ عن السعر.
by the Assistance of such Typographical Embellishments as should nearly equal Copper-Plates, and at the same Time be considerably more reasonable than the most contemptible Wood-Cuts
هنا جوهر العرض: زخارف تقترب من جودة ألواح النحاس الغالية وسعرها أقل من أرخص النقوش الخشبية، فيضع المنتج بين مرجعين يعرفهما المشتري.
which, he is persuaded, will be found to answer a Variety of useful Purposes, and greatly to exceed every Thing of the Kind heretofore seen in this or any other Country
ادعاء تفوق مطلق على كل ما سبق في أي بلد، بلا رقم ولا شاهد، وهو ما لا تقبله قواعد الإعلان اليوم دون إثبات.
The acknowledged Judgment of those, to whom this SPECIMEN is most particularly submitted, happily precludes Mr. Caslon from the disagreeable Necessity of minutely expatiating on the Utility of what he offers to their Attention
يرفض الشرح المطول لفائدة الزخارف، ويقول إن خبرة القراء تغنيه عنه، فيمدح حكمهم ويترك العينات تتكلم.
The scanned text has OCR errors. The passages are quoted from it, with only obvious slips fixed.
What it teaches best
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