Specimen of Metal Cast Ornaments, Curiously Adjusted to Paper

What it is

A specimen of cast metal ornaments from Fry and Steele, letter-founders to the Prince of Wales, of Type Street, London, dated MDCCCV (1805) on its title page. The OCR catches only the title page and the order numbers and prices; the ornaments themselves are pictures. About 120 pieces are numbered, one to several to a page, most with a price beside the number, from 1s. 6d. to 14s. in the legible figures. The swipe card, drawn from the page images, lists winged Fame and Time with FINIS banners, a putto on clouds, the Prince of Wales feathers at two sizes (Nos. 51 and 52) and a ship between two lighthouses. The OCR itself confirms panels lettered PROTECTION and POSTSCRIPT, and one that reads as Indenture.

Why read it now

The layout is the lesson. Each ornament sits with its number and price beside it, so one page is sample, order code and price list at once, and a printer can order by letter without a second document. Showing the Prince of Wales feathers at two sizes and two prices lets the buyer compare in one look. The royal appointment on the title page is borrowed authority, the same logic as a royal warrant or client logos on a website today, and it still works when the link is real and can be checked. Several pieces are working copy that a jobbing printer sets every week, FINIS, POSTSCRIPT, Indenture, so their use needs no explaining. What has dated: the allegorical figures, and the fact that nothing in the text shows how the pieces combine. Use it in any catalogue of parts or templates: put the code and the price on the same line as the item shown at actual size.

Passages worth keeping

The scanned text has OCR errors. The passages are quoted from it, with only obvious slips fixed.

What it teaches best

• Specimen as proof
• Mail-order catalog
• Trust

Read the original archive.org