To Benjamin Franklin from Peter Collinson, [1766?–1768]
From Peter Collinson
AL: American Philosophical Society
[1766?–1768]1
P Collinson very Respectfull Inquires after his Dear Friends Health hopes to See him next Thurday.
The Inclosed Letter Shows the purpose of the Ingenious Mr. Moors2 waiting on You to Show his Curious Types.3
Addressed: To / Benn. Franklin Esqr / at Mrs Stephensons in / Craven Street
1. This note cannot have been written later than Aug. 11, 1768, the date of Collinson’s death.
2. This may have been Isaac Moor or Moore, a Bristol type founder, who established himself in London about 1766 in the firm of Pine & Moor, but it is more likely Edward Rowe Mores (1731–1778), antiquarian, student and collector of typographical materials, and author of a Dissertation upon English Typographical Founders and Foundaries (London, 1778). Mores and BF corresponded in 1773 and in his book Mores noted that Thomas James (d. 1736 or 1738), a famous type founder, had conducted his business in a building once occupied by Samuel Palmer, in whose house worked a journeyman (BF) “well known since in the philosophical world.” For Mores, see DNB.
3. On an otherwise blank page of this letter are sketched some script types: an h alone, and the letters h, i, and m, and an em-quad set together.