war effort

Curwen had inherited a printing business in Plaistow, east London. In 1915 the government appealed for scrap metal to help the war effort. Curwen gazed at the 'clever, fussy, pretentious Victorian typefaces spread about his composing room floor' and felt a wave of revulsion. He sent away more than 200 founts of type, retaining just one plain one, Caslon Old Face.