The lost Doves Type: A Thames mystery solved

It was midnight as TJ Cobden-Sanderson stepped out into a dark, summer night in west London in August 1916. He struggled to remain inconspicuous as he carried a heavy wooden box down a small passageway, his face concealed under his large beret. It was an arduous task for a 75-year-old man, but he was on a mission to destroy the very thing he loved so much, his life’s work.

After a 10-minute walk along the River Thames, Cobden-Sanderson arrived at Hammersmith Bridge, a beautiful Victorian suspension bridge gracefully supported by towering green turrets and decorated with ornate, golden features. Concealed under the cover of darkness, Cobden-Sanderson went to a discreet spot on the bridge where he quietly dumped trays of metal type into the Thames.

The sound of passing buses and traffic on the timber-decked bridge drowned out the splash of the heavy type in the river below. Between 1916 and 1917, Cobden-Sanderson made around 170 trips to Hammersmith Bridge to condemn his precious masterpiece to the depths of the River Thames, hoping it would never be seen again.

Why did he dispose of his life’s work?

TJ Cobden-Sanderson was a printer and bookbinder who established the Doves Bindery in 1893, which he named after The Dove pub located next to his house along the Thames. Cobden-Sanderson was part of the Arts and Crafts movement and was friends with Emery Walker and William Morris, who ran Kelmscott Press in Hammersmith near Cobden-Sanderson’s house.

After Morris died in 1896, Cobden-Sanderson convinced Walker to set up their own printing press. In 1900, the Doves Press was established by the two men who became partners in the joint venture.

Based on the Venetian types of 15th-century printer Nicolas Jenson, the Doves Type was commissioned by Cobden-Sanderson under Walker’s supervision. As part of the private press movement, the partners opposed mechanised printing and used a hand press to create their books.

The 40 editions issued by the Doves Press between 1900 and 1916 included some of the finest books ever produced in Britain. Completed in 1905, the five-volume Doves Bible was their crowning achievement.

Despite acclaim for the press, Cobden-Sanderson grew resentful of what he understood as Walker’s lack of commitment. Walker divided his time between his engraving business, the Doves Press and various committees and societies. This and differences over the work of the press led to the partnership being dissolved in 1909.

Under the terms of an earlier agreement, Walker was promised a fount of type for his own use. Cobden-Sanderson attempted to renege on this arrangement, and a bitter feud erupted. Concerned friends negotiated a compromise: Cobden-Sanderson could print with the type until his death, after which it would revert to Walker.

Cobden-Sanderson secretly resolved that neither Walker, nor anyone else, would have it. In August 1916, he began discarding the Doves Type off Hammersmith Bridge. Announcing the closure of the Doves Press in March 1917, Cobden-Sanderson revealed that its type had been ‘bequeathed’ to the River Thames.

For 97 years, the Doves Type lay at the bottom of the Thames, hidden among the gravel and mud. Several attempts were made to find the discarded type, but none were successful. Robert Green, a London graphic designer, became fascinated by the Doves Type after toying with the idea of starting his own private press. He decided to redraw it, based on printed sources, as a digital font.

After its initial release in 2013, Green was not satisfied with the font’s accuracy. He obtained a mudlarking license determined to recover some of the original metal type from the riverbed to use as references.

Following further research and some detective work retracing Cobden-Sanderson’s footsteps across Hammersmith Bridge, Green went onto the Thames foreshore at low tide in October 2014. He found three pieces of type and immediately contacted the Port of London Authority (PLA) to commission divers to retrieve more from the riverbed at the next low tide.

A PLA boat arrived from Gravesend with a full crew onboard including three divers. Wearing professional scuba gear, they dove down and dredged the riverbed with a bucket, which they sorted through a household sieve. After around 90 minutes, small amounts of type began appearing in the sieve.

In total, 147 pieces of type were recovered by the PLA divers. Green was able to digitally recreate a more accurate font, using the metal typeface retrieved from the river. The new version was released in 2015 and is now available to purchase at Typespec.

Over the past decade, other mudlarks have continued to discover and recover the Doves Type. Surprisingly, Lukasz Orlinski has found over 500 pieces of the lost type. In December 2020, I was the first person to ever donate pieces of Doves Type to Emery Walker’s Trust after they were recorded on the Portable Antiquities Scheme.

The Doves Type, which Cobden-Sanderson meticulously created and systematically discarded in the Thames, is now back in possession of Emery Walker’s Trust. Today the font is used by thousands of people worldwide, thanks to Robert Green’s digital facsimile. Cobden-Sanderson must be rolling in his grave! This is exactly what he didn’t want to happen.

As part of London Museum’s major new exhibition Secrets of the Thames, which starts on 4 April 2025, the Doves Type will be on display at London Museum Docklands, along with hundreds of other mudlarking finds.

Jason Sandy is a mudlark, architect and author of MUDLARKS: Treasures from the Thames and co-author of Thames Mudlarking: Searching for London's Lost Treasures.

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