James Mosley (born 1935) is a retired librarian and historian whose work has specialised in the history of printing and letter design. The main part of Mosley's career has been 42 years as Librarian of the

St Bride Printing Library St Bride Library (formerly known as St Bride Printing Library and St Bride Typographical Library) is a library in London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, ...

in London, where he curated and worked to expand the museum's large collection of printing and lettering materials, books and examples. This collection greatly expanded with the close of the

metal type In typesetting, a sort or type is a block with a typographic character etched on it, which is lined up with others to print text. In movable-type printing, the sort or type is cast from a matrix mold and assembled by hand with other sorts be ...

era, which saw many companies and printing shops selling off their equipment and archives. Mosley also expanded the library's collection of lettering and signs. He has also been a lecturer and professor at the

University of Reading The University of Reading is a public university in Reading, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1892 as University College, Reading, a University of Oxford extension college. The institution received the power to grant its own degrees in 192 ...

since 1964, and founded the British

Printing Historical Society The Printing Historical Society or 'PHS' is a learned society devoted to the study of the history of printing, in all its forms. History The Society was founded in London in 1964 by a group of teachers, scholars, students of design and bibliography ...

in that year. Particular areas of focus of his career have been, in Britain,

William Caslon William Caslon I (1692/1693 – 23 January 1766), also known as William Caslon the Elder,Oxford Dictionary of National Biography was an English typefounder. The distinction and legibility of his type secured him the patronage of the leading ...

Vincent Figgins Vincent Figgins (1766 – 29 February 1844) was a British typefounder based in London, who cast and sold metal type for printing. After an apprenticeship with typefounder Joseph Jackson, he established his own type foundry in 1792. His company ...

and

Talbot Baines Reed Talbot Baines Reed (3 April 1852 – 28 November 1893) was an English writer of young adult fiction, boys' fiction who established a genre of school story, school stories that endured into the mid-20th century. Among his best-known work is ' ...

Eric Gill Arthur Eric Rowton Gill, (22 February 1882 – 17 November 1940) was an English sculptor, letter cutter, typeface designer, and printmaker. Although the ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' describes Gill as ″the greatest artist-cra ...

(with whose brother Evan he worked in the 1950s), and, in Europe, the Romain du Roi.

Education

Mosley grew up in

Twickenham Twickenham is a suburban district in London, England. It is situated on the River Thames southwest of Charing Cross. Historically part of Middlesex, it has formed part of the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames since 1965, and the boroug ...

in south-west London, where he became interested in printing, before studying English at

King's College, Cambridge King's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Formally The King's College of Our Lady and Saint Nicholas in Cambridge, the college lies beside the River Cam and faces out onto King's Parade in the centre of the cit ...

, where he with

Philip Gaskell Philip Gaskell (6 January 1926 – 31 July 2001) was a British bibliographer and librarian. Life He was born on 6 January 1926 in Highgate, London, the son of John Wellesley Gaskell, director of an engineering company, and his wife, Olive Eliza ...

, later also a historian of printing, operated a small hand-press as an amateur project in the college cellar. During his time at university he worked with

's brother Evan on sorting material for an exhibition on his work by

Monotype Monotyping is a type of printmaking made by drawing or painting on a smooth, non-absorbent surface. The surface, or matrix, was historically a copper etching plate, but in contemporary work it can vary from zinc or glass to acrylic glass. The ...

, a printing equipment company with which Gill often collaborated.

Career

After a brief period working at the

type foundry A type foundry is a company that designs or distributes typefaces. Before digital typography, type foundries manufactured and sold metal and wood typefaces for hand typesetting, and matrices for line-casting machines like the Linotype and Mono ...

Stevens Shanks, one of the last remaining in London, Mosley was hired at St. Bride as assistant librarian in 1956, becoming librarian in 1958. As a writer, two of his most famous articles are 'English Vernacular', on signpainting and lettering traditions, and 'The Nymph and the Grot', on the early development of

sans-serif In typography and lettering, a sans-serif, sans serif, gothic, or simply sans letterform is one that does not have extending features called "serifs" at the end of strokes. Sans-serif typefaces tend to have less stroke width variation than seri ...

letters before they became adopted by printers, which was later republished as a book. He has collaborated with historians on other projects, for example on a study of the early printing of works by Hume and with Justin Howes. He also worked with Harry Carter, and has also contributed to a book on his son

Matthew Matthew may refer to: * Matthew (given name) * Matthew (surname) * ''Matthew'' (ship), the replica of the ship sailed by John Cabot in 1497 * ''Matthew'' (album), a 2000 album by rapper Kool Keith * Matthew (elm cultivar), a cultivar of the Ch ...

. Mosley helped to acquire for St. Bride a large range of printing materials, at a time when companies were disposing of their hot metal typesetting and foundry type equipment or going out of business altogether. This included material from

, H. W. Caslon & Company, Figgins and the

Chiswick Press The Chiswick Press was founded by Charles Whittingham I (1767–1840) in 1811. The management of the Press was taken over in 1840 by the founder's nephew Charles Whittingham II (1795–1876). The name was first used in 1811, and the Press continu ...

, as well as materials from printing shops including the collections of

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...

and the

Victoria & Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...

, supplementing the personal collections of

William Blades William Blades (5 December 182427 April 1890), English printer and bibliographer, was born at Clapham, London. Career In 1840 he was apprenticed to his father's printing business in London, being subsequently taken into partnership. The ...

and

which the library already owned. He has also advised on revivals of historic typefaces and lettering, for example one of traditional French metal stencil lettering. Since retirement from St. Bride Mosley has continued to write, research and lecture, for example on the career of Eric Gill in 2015. He also advised on creating historically accurate lettering for replica globes,

Tate Britain Tate Britain, known from 1897 to 1932 as the National Gallery of British Art and from 1932 to 2000 as the Tate Gallery, is an art museum on Millbank in the City of Westminster in London, England. It is part of the Tate network of galleries in ...

and ''

HMS Victory HMS ''Victory'' is a 104-gun first-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, ordered in 1758, laid down in 1759 and launched in 1765. She is best known for her role as Lord Nelson's flagship at the Battle of Trafalgar on 21 October 1805. She ...

''.

References

External links

Personal blog

Photographs
Mosley's Type, Lettering and Calligraphy reading lists:
1450-1830 reading list

1830-2000 reading list
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mosley, James Alumni of King's College, Cambridge Living people English historians English art historians English librarians Academics of the University of Reading 1935 births Historians of printing