Proef van Letteren, welke gegooten worden in de Nieuwe Haerlemsche Lettergietery van J. Enschedé, 1768.

Haarlem, J. Enschedé, 1768. Engraved ornamental frontispiece, title-page, engraved portrait of Johan Enschedé, engraving of statue of Coster, engraving of statue of Hadrianus Junius, 16 ff of introduction; 75 ff of typespecimens; engraving of another statue of Coster, 4 ff of typespecimens (= the supplement Oud Hollandse letteren), 8 pp list of prices, folding view of Enschedé's foundry (lower margin of one fold a bit torn, not affecting the engraving). Canon Hebreeuwsch not present (but missing in most known copies). Apart from some staining to 4 ff. a good clean copy in contemporary mottled calf binding with goldstamped decorative border on the front and back covers and spine with 5 raised bands goldtooled. Red leather title vignette that says: "letterproef". Marbled edges. Without the portait of Fleischmann that was added later. Name "Jan van Krimpen" in pencil on the verso of the titlepage. Did this come from his collection?

Enschedé's 1768 type specimen that is considered the most important and most interesting Dutch typespemen of the eighteenth century. It includes specimens of all book and music types, initial letters, exotic fonts, typographical ornaments and especially splendid black-letter types of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries accumulated in the old Dutch foundry still flourishing under the same name. Our copy does not have the portrait of J.M. Fleischmann who died just before the publication and whose portrait was engraved in 1769 and according to Lane/Lommen # 10 was probably added to the copies that were still left in 1769. Our copy seems to have been bound before the portrait of Fleischmann was added, there is no trace that a portrait ever has been bound-in. [c.f. Bigmore & Wyman p. 202; Updike pp. 38 ff; Birrell & Garnett 71; Lane/Lommen # 10; also see facs. ed. 1993 with introduction and notes.