Doves Type

design

We went to the fascinating “Secrets of the Thames” exhibition at the London Museum Docklands yesterday. My favourite exhibit was some examples of Doves Type recovered from the river and subsequently used to recreate the font. The photo is poor, but the story is much better.

Around 1900, two neighbours in Hammersmith founded Doves Press and created the rather attractive Doves Type typeface for use in all their books. There was a falling out, and one partner was given sole use of the typeface but had to bequeath it to the other on his death

He decided to bequeath the typeface to the Thames instead and made 170 trips to Hammersmith Bridge to throw the matrices and punches into the river - 1,000 kg in total. Just over a century later, Robert Green recovered enough of the type to create a digital replica.