TYPE 3.—This handsome fount appears to have been used from about 1479 to 1483, chiefly for head-lines, although one or two small church books, as well as Caxton’s _Advertisement_, were printed entirely in it. The body is the same as that of Type 2, with which it is sometimes used, to distinguish proper names. The fount consists of 194 sorts, of which the points are remarkable as being smaller than those of Type 2. It is the first appearance of the “Lettre de Forme” in English typography; although, as Mr. Blades has pointed out, this character belongs only to the “lower-case” letters, the capitals partaking more of the features of Mansion’s “Gros Bâtarde”. The fount possesses a special interest in being the first letter put forward as an English printer’s Type-specimen. In the _Advertisement_, which we reproduce in facsimile (No. 15), Caxton calls attention to the fact that he is prepared to sell cheap copies of the Pica or Ordinary of the Salisbury service, printed in the same type as the specimen shown, to anyone, spiritual or temporal, who may come to his shop at the Red Pale, Westminster. There is nothing to show whether this fount was brought by Caxton from Bruges, or whether it is entitled to the distinction of being the first fount wholly cut and cast in this country. The German cut of the “lower-case,” as well as the slight use which Caxton made of it, would almost suggest that it was not the product of his own genius. On the other hand, the frequent use which De Worde made of the fount after his master’s death, seems to point to the existence of the matrices, as well as the types, in this country.