The study of Caxton’s press was the chief work of Blades’s life and that by which he gained distinction. Allusion has already been made to _The Life and Typography of William Caxton_, 1861-63, and it may be noted here that in 1865 he published “A Catalogue of Books printed by or ascribed to the press of Caxton, in which is included the press mark of every copy contained in the British Museum.” In 1869 he printed fifty copies of a fac-simile of a small tract from Caxton’s press, _Ars Moriendi_, which had shortly before been found in the Bodleian Library. In 1870 appeared the useful little handbook entitled _How to tell a Caxton, with some hints where the same may be found_.

Blades was the moving spirit in the management of the very successful Caxton Exhibition of 1877. As Mr. Talbot Reed writes, “It was due to him that the solecism of celebrating the Fourth Centenary of the Introduction of Printing into England three years before its time was avoided. When the true anniversary came Mr. Blades threw himself heart and soul into the movement. What was his part in the success of the celebration is already on record. He suggested both the form the festival should take and the methods by which it might be carried out. He undertook the collection and arrangement of the unique display of Caxtons and early English printed books which were brought together--perhaps the most complete collection ever seen at one time. He organised and superintended the arrangement of the large miscellaneous collection of books, specimens, autographs, portraits, medals, and curiosities, to which he himself contributed the lion share.”[1] He wrote the Preface to the first section of the Catalogue devoted to “William Caxton and the development of the art of Printing in England and Scotland.”

The _Life and Typography_ was an expensive book, and in the year of the Caxton Exhibition Mr. Blades did the bibliographer who was unable to purchase this work a great service by producing a condensed edition in one octavo volume, entitled The _Biography and Typography of William Caxton_, which forms a most useful guide to the student of the history of Printing in England. A second edition of this work was issued in 1882. No one who has consulted these important works can doubt the immense labour which the author devoted to his task, but it may be mentioned in passing that Mr. Blades is said to have inspected four hundred and fifty Caxtons during the course of his researches.

It was in connection with Mr. Blades’s work on Caxton that the writer of this notice had the privilege of first making his acquaintance. In the year 1868 it occurred to me that it would be possible by means of a society to reproduce in fac-simile the whole of Caxton’s works, as a monument to the memory of our first printer. Before proceeding in the matter I sought an interview with Mr. Blades. He invited me to his house near the Crystal Palace to talk the matter over, and he naturally showed the greatest interest in the scheme. Although he was not very sanguine of success, he entered pretty fully into calculations, and the result of our consultation was that the cost of reproducing the whole of the works would be £20,000, a sum which might be met by the subscriptions of five hundred members at two guineas a year for twenty years. I received many promises of support, but eventually the scheme was abandoned as too risky an undertaking, more especially as the great object to be attained was completeness, and there was no possibility of guaranteeing the interest of five hundred subscribers in the work for so long a period as twenty years. This may appear a mad scheme to many, and I hope I shall be excused for introducing a mention of it here, on the ground that Mr. Blades’s consideration of the proposal evinced his judgment, patience, and kindliness of character, and so helps to show my readers what manner of man he really was.