William Bulmer, British printer, James Ramsay

William Bulmer (1757–1830) was an English

printer Printer may refer to: Technology * Printer (publishing), a person or a company * Printer (computing), a hardware device * Optical printer for motion picture films People * Nariman Printer (fl. c. 1940), Indian journalist and activist * James ...

and

typographer Typography is the art and technique of arranging type to make written language legible, readable and appealing when displayed. The arrangement of type involves selecting typefaces, point sizes, line lengths, line-spacing ( leading), an ...

Biography

William Bulmer was born in 1757 as one of the youngest children of Thomas Bulmer in Newcastle-upon-Tyne. He was apprenticed to the printer Mr. Thompson, at Burnt House Entry, St. Nicholas' Churchyard. During his apprenticeship he formed a friendship with

Thomas Bewick Thomas Bewick (c. 11 August 17538 November 1828) was an English wood-engraver and natural history author. Early in his career he took on all kinds of work such as engraving cutlery, making the wood blocks for advertisements, and illustrating ch ...

, which lasted throughout his life William-Bulmer-The-Chase-1796

When William Bulmer first came to London, he worked for the printer and publisher John Bell and was introduced to George Nicol, bookseller to

King George III George III (George William Frederick; 4 June 173829 January 1820) was King of Great Britain and of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until the union of the two kingdoms on 1 January 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great Br ...

, who, with

John Boydell John Boydell (; 19 January 1720 (New Style) – 12 December 1804) was a British publisher noted for his reproductions of engravings. He helped alter the trade imbalance between Britain and France in engravings and initiated a British tradition i ...

had conceived a lavish edition of the works of Shakespeare with illustrations from the foremost artists of the day. For the project Nicol had already engaged the services of William Martin, a type-founder from Birmingham who had worked for John Baskerville, to design and cut the type. In the spring of 1790, William Bulmer established The Shakespeare Press at 3 Russell Court, off Cleveland Row, St. James's and the first part of the Shakespeare appeared in January 1791 comprising "Much Ado About Nothing" and "Richard III". In 1796 Bulmer published a quarto edition of Somerville's "Chase". All the engravings but one in this volume were designed by

John Bewick John William Bewick (20 April 1824 – 29 October 1886) was an English prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Bishop of Hexham and Newcastle from 1882 to 1886. Born in Ministeracres, Northumberland on 20 April 1824, he was ordained to ...

, and engraved by his brother

. Other books followed, including Thomas Frognall Dibdin's ''Typographical Antiquities of Great Britain'', ''Bibliographical Decameron'', and the ''Bibliotheca Spenceriana''. Bulmer printed almost 600 books and pamphlets until his retirement 1819 as well as reports and catalogues for many institutional clients such as The

East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and South ...

, the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

, the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

and the

Roxburghe Club The Roxburghe Club is a bibliophilic and publishing society based in the United Kingdom. Origins The spur to the Club's foundation was the sale of the enormous library of the Duke of Roxburghe (who had died in 1804), which took place over 46 day ...

. William Bulmer died at Clapham, on 9 September 1830, and was buried in St. Clement Danes, Strand.

Selected publications

Persius Aulus Persius Flaccus (; 4 December 3424 November 62 AD) was a Roman poet and satirist of Etruscan origin. In his works, poems and satires, he shows a Stoic wisdom and a strong criticism for what he considered to be the stylistic abuses of his ...

(1790) * Milton (3 vols. 1793-1797) *

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...

(9 vols. 1794-1804) * ''Museum Worsleyanum'' by Sir

Richard Worsley General Sir Richard Edward Worsley (29 May 1923 – 23 February 2013) was a senior British Army officer who fought in the Second World War and later commanded 1st (British) Corps. Early life Worsley was born on 29 May 1923 at Ballywalter ...

. 2 vols. (1794 &c.); the date 1794 is on both title-pages, but the book was issued serially in six fascicles; part one issued 1798 (costing £2,887 4s), part one issued 1802. *

Francis Blomefield Rev. Francis Blomefield (23 July 170516 January 1752), FSA, Rector of Fersfield in Norfolk, was an English antiquarian who wrote a county history of Norfolk: ''An Essay Towards a Topographical History of the County of Norfolk''. It include ...

(1805) * Matthew Flinders (1814)

References

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bulmer, William 1757 births 1830 deaths English printers English typographers and type designers