Haddon (Caxton Type Foundry)

1. Overview

[dates?] London. Walter Haddon. John Haddon & Co., "Caxton Type Foundry."

See Inland Printer. Vol. 24, No. 1 (October, 1899): 140 for a brief note with a photograph of Walter Haddon and the report that the Haddon foundry "has the reputation of being the first to adopt the American point system in casting all its faces."

{ Millington, Roy. Stephenson Blake: The Last of the Old English Typefounders. New Castle, DE and London: Oak Knoll Books and The British Library, 2002. says "Then in 1895, the progressive but smaller Caxton Type Foundry - one outside of membership of the Typefounders' Association - announced its intention of casting its letter to the American Point System standard." (p. 99) See also the account on the next few pages of an acrimonious published debate over the point system which involved the Caxton foundry.

Wallis (p. 33) notes that J. Haddon & Co. sued R. P. Bannerman & Sons for "alleged infringement of a registered design of type." { Wallis, L. W. "Legros and Grant: The Typographical Connection." Journal of the Printing Historical Society. No. 28 (1999): 5-39. }, citing "Alleged Infringement of Design." The British and Colonial Printer and Stationer . (15 August 1912)

Moseley, Howes and Roche give the dates for John Haddon & Co. as 1900-1939. The terminal date makes sense, but that starting date is too late for the foundry as a whole. Perhaps it indicates the transition from Walter Haddon to John Haddon?

Disposition of the foundry unknown to me.

Moseley, James, Justin Howes, and Nigel Roche. Founder's London A-Z. London: The [European] Friends of the St. Bride's Printing Library, 1998.) pp. 25, 30.