Edmund Fry
| Edmund Fry | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1754 Bristol, England |
| Died | December 25, 1835 London, England |
| Nationality | English |
| Known for | Type-founder and chocolate maker |
Edmund Fry (1754–1835) was an English type-founder.
Fry was the son of Joseph Fry, and member of the Bristol Fry family, born at Bristol. He studied medicine; took the degree of M.D. at Edinburgh, and spent some time at St George's Hospital, London.
In 1782 his father admitted him and his brother Henry, as partners in the type-foundry business in Queen Street, London. The father retired in 1787, when the new firm, Edmund Fry & Co., issued their first ‘Specimen of Printing Types,’ followed the next year by an enlarged edition. Several founts of the oriental type, which fill twelve pages, were cut by Fry.
In 1788 the printing business was separated from the foundry, and remained at Worship Street as the ‘Cicero Press,’ under the management of Henry Fry. The foundry was removed to a place opposite Bunhill Fields in Chiswell Street, and new works erected in a street then called Type Street. Homer's series of the classics (1789–1794), printed by Millar Ritchie, were from the characters of the Type Street foundry. In 1793 ‘Edmund Fry & Co., letter founders to the Prince of Wales,’ produced a ‘Specimen of Metal-cast Ornaments curiously adjusted to paper,’ which gained vogue among printers. The next year Fry took Isaac Steele into partnership, and published a ‘Specimen’ which ‘shows a marked advance on its predecessors’.
On the admission of George Knowles in 1799, the firm took the name of Fry, Steele, & Co. At the start of the nineteenth century the modern-faced type supplanted the old-faced. ‘Specimens of modern cut printing types from the foundry of Messrs. Fry & Steele’ are given in Caleb Stower's ‘Printer's Grammar,’ 1808. About this time Fry reassumed sole management of the business. In 1816 a ‘Specimen of Printing Types by Edmund Fry, Letter Founder to the King and Prince Regent,’ was published. The firm soon after became Edmund Fry & Son, on the admission of his son, Windover.
In a ‘Specimen’ printed in 1824 the name is changed back to ‘Edmund Fry’ at ‘the Polyglot Foundry.’ In 1828 he moved to dispose of his business, and issued a descriptive circular. It was purchased by William Thorowgood of Fann Street, and the stock removed in 1829. It was then in the hands of Thorowgood & Besley, then R. Besley & Co., and finally Sir Charles Reed & Sons, before closing in the early twentieth century.
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