Figure 325
“Classic” Types: Épreuves de Caractères, Fonderie Générale, Paris, 1843 1853
From Gallica (scan)
1853
Another important specimen of the Fonderie Générale, then managed by Biesta, Laboulave & Cie, issued in 1843, showed, in addition to the collections mentioned, those of Lion, Tarbé, and Laboulaye Frères. The preliminary Avis supplies references by which the types cut by different designers may be identified. The book is important to any one desiring to reconstitute the typography of a somewhat hopeless period. It has also the doubtful honour of being one of the earliest specimen-books in which a series of condensed letters for titling was shown though the Didots used them in their own printing much earlier.