Treyford (series 226) — Half strength jobbing

William Graily Hewitt (1864-19 52) had indeed a proven record, almost as calligrapher to the nation. A pupil - like Gill - of Edward Johnston.

Launched in 1928, at the time of the Morisonian typographical renaissance and of the New Typography of the Bauhaus school, it conforms to the ideals of neither. In contrast with other Monotype faces cut during the late twenties, Treyford is calligraphic rather than typographic, an Arts and Crafts script transposed into lead type.?

Odder still is the fact that Treyford was commissioned by John Johnson, Printer to the University of Oxford, shrine of typographical tradition. For two years the new type enjoyed the active patronage of the University Press, until in 1930 the young Stanley Morison published a hostile review in The Fleuron.? Oxford however continued to display the fount in its type specimens until 1966, and advertised its availability until at least 1976. The rise and fall of the Treyford type is well documented in the archives of the University Press. It is a human story, and much of it is told in the inimitable flowing prose of Johnson himself.