of Pictures, composed and painted chiefly by the most admired masters, in which many of the most capital are illustrated by descriptions and critical remarks by Robert Foulis,’ London, 1776, 3 vols. 12mo. The net result of the three nights' sale was very disappointing, for which some cause may be discovered in the absence of any evidence of genuineness in the printed descriptions. Foulis was deeply mortified, and on his way home died suddenly at Edinburgh 2 June 1776, aged 69.
‘A Catalogue of Books, being the entire stock in quires of the late Messrs. R. and A. Foulis,’ announces the sale by auction at Glasgow 1 Oct. 1777. Their affairs were finally wound up in 1781 by Robert Chapman, printer, and James Duncan, bookseller. The debts amounted to over 6,500l.; nearly the whole of the stock was purchased by James Spottiswood of Edinburgh. The printing house in Shuttle Street was advertised for sale 31 Oct. 1782.
In the course of thirty-six years Robert and Andrew Foulis produced over 554 works, the number (known to be incomplete) in the list given by Duncan (Notices and Documents, pp. 49–78, 147–9); 461, being one of the most extensive collections extant, are in the Mitchell Library, Glasgow. Most of the books are reprints of standard authors; few are original. When published their chief merits were careful editing, convenient size, good paper, artistic appearance, and cheapness. They are now much sought after as admirable specimens of typography, and are noticeable for their severely plain elegance. ‘Nothing has ever been done [in Glasgow] to rival the results attained by the Foulis press,’ says Professor Ferguson. ‘The works produced by it are quite entitled to rank with the Aldines, Elzevirs, Bodonis, Baskervilles, which are all justly renowned for the varied excellencies they possess, but no provincial, and certainly no metropolitan, press in this country has ever surpassed that of the two brothers’ (The Library, March 1889, p. 95).
There is a medallion portrait of Foulis by Tassie, of which an engraving is given by Duncan (op. cit.) and by Dibdin (Bibl. Tour, ii. 765). A print of an engraving of the academy in the fore-hall, Glasgow College, after a drawing by D. Allan, is in MacGeorge's ‘Old Glasgow’ (p. 302).
Robert was of short stature, robust, well-proportioned, amiable, and sociable. During the winter the brothers sold books by auction. Andrew usually acted as auctioneer, for Robert was not a businesslike salesman. On one occasion he refused to sell ‘Tom Jones,’ as ‘improper for the perusal of young persons.’ He was twice married: first, in September 1742, to Elizabeth, daughter of James Moor; she died in 1750, having had five daughters. His second wife was a daughter of William Boutcher, seedsman, of Edinburgh; she also died before her husband, who survived several of his daughters. His son, Andrew the younger, carried on the printing in the same style, and many of his books are not inferior to those of the older firm, whose name he used. A Virgil, 2 vols. folio (1778), a ‘Cicero de Officiis,’ 12mo (1784), and a Virgil, 12mo (1784), deserve mention. He died in 1829 in great poverty. Alexander Tilloch entered into partnership with Foulis in 1782, in order to carry on his reinvention of stereotyping.
Andrew Foulis the elder (1712–1775), born at Glasgow 23 Nov. 1712, was originally intended for the church, and received a more regular education than his elder brother Robert. For some time he taught Greek, Latin, French, and philosophy in Glasgow. From 1738 to his last moments the life of Andrew cannot be dissociated from that of his partner Robert. Of the two brothers Andrew was more strictly the man of business; after the foundation of the academy the responsibility of the printing, bookselling, and binding departments fell mainly on him. Between 1764 and 1770 he read eleven papers (see list in Duncan, p. 135) before the Literary Society of Glasgow, to which he was elected in 1756. He died suddenly of apoplexy 18 Sept. 1775, at the age of sixty-three (Scots Mag. 1775, p. 526).
[Information obligingly contributed by Dr. David Murray from his forthcoming work, An Account of the Foulis Academy and of the Progress of Literature, Art, and Science in Glasgow. Many facts are given in Notices and Documents illustrative of the Literary History of Glasgow (by William James Duncan), Maitland Club, 1831, 4to, reprinted with additions, Glasgow, 1886; see also an interesting article by Professor John Ferguson on the Brothers Foulis and early Glasgow Printers in The Library, March 1889; T. Mason's Public and Private Libraries of Glasgow, 1885; T. B. Reed's Old English Letter Foundries, 1887; J. Strang's Glasgow and its Clubs, 2nd ed. 1857; Dibdin's Bibl. Tour in Northern Counties and Scotland, 1838, vol. ii.; Nichols's Lit. Anecd. iii. 217, 691, viii. 475, 569, and Illustrations, ii. 167.]
FOULKES, PETER, D.D. (1676–1747), scholar and divine, was the third son of Robert Foulkes of Llechryd, Denbighshire, deputy baron of the court of exchequer of Chester, by Jane Ameredith of Landulph, Cornwall. He was admitted king's scholar at Westminster in 1690, and was elected thence to a Westminster studentship at Christ
