ABSTRACT
Taylor became a master printer at a period when printing was poised for mechanisation and expansion. During his father’s and his own lifetime the number of master printers in London was to increase from just over a hundred to nearly four hundred, with proportional expansions in the associated trades of typefounders, inkmakers, papermakers, engravers, bookbinders and booksellers. When Taylor began his career, a printer’s work had altered little since the time of Gutenberg. The drawing of a printing machine under the baroque portrait of Koenig shows the cylinder and perfecting machine which he patented in 1814. This machine was first used by Bensley in 1816 and is described in the partners’ Prospectus. Thomas Bensley, printer of Bolt Court and chief partner in the syndicate of ‘Bensley, Koenig, Woodfall & Taylor’ which was formed in March 1813 to build and sell Koenig’s mechanical presses.
