Like many talented people in every age, John Baskerville did not reap much benefit from his careful work. In a 1762 letter to Benjamin Franklin, who was an admirer of his work, Baskerville wrote, “Had I no other dependence than typefounding and printing, I must starve.” (Lawson, p. 190) After Baskerville died in 1775, his punches and matrices were sold off and his work was mostly out of history’s eye until it was rediscovered by Bruce Rogers in 1917. He found a book printed in Baskerville’s type, and tracked down the source, a French foundry named Fonderie Bertand. Under his direction the type was purchased for Harvard University Press in 1919 and it came back into the public eye as it was used in connection with that prestigious producer of printed material.

While the original Baskerville type was conceived and produced as a text face, a later variation known as Fry Baskerville or Foundry Baskerville. This design is best used, according to Lawson (p. 95), as a display face and was used a great deal in 1950’s advertising.