BLADES, WILLIAM (1824-9o), English printer and bibli ographer, was born at Clapham, London, Dec. 5 1824, and died at Sutton, Surrey, April 27 1890. In 184o he was apprenticed to his father's printing business in London, and was subsequently taken into partnership. His Life and Typography of William Caxton, England's First Printer, was published in 1861-63, and the conclusions which he set forth were arrived at by a careful examination of types in the early books, each class of type being traced from its first use to the time when, spoiled by wear, it passed out of Caxton's hands. Some 45o volumes from the Caxton Press were thus carefully compared and classified in chrono logical order.