Vincent Figgins
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Vincent Figgins (1766 – 29 February 1844) was a British typefounder based in London, who
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and sold
metal type In physical typesetting, a sort or type is a block with a typographic character etched on it, used—when lined up with others—to print text. In movable-type printing, the sort or type is cast from a matrix mold and assembled by hand wit ...
for
printing Printing is a process for mass reproducing text and images using a master form or template. The earliest non-paper products involving printing include cylinder seals and objects such as the Cyrus Cylinder and the Cylinders of Nabonidus. The ...
. After an
apprenticeship Apprenticeship is a system for training a potential new practitioners of a trade or profession with on-the-job training and often some accompanying study. Apprenticeships may also enable practitioners to gain a license to practice in a regulat ...
with typefounder Joseph Jackson, he established his own type foundry in 1792. His company was extremely successful and, with its range of modern serif faces and
display typeface A display typeface is a typeface that is intended for use in display type (display copy) at large sizes for titles, headings, pull quotes, and other eye-catching elements, rather than for extended passages of body text. Display typefaces will ...
s, had a strong influence on the styles of British printing in the nineteenth century. A successor company continued to make type until the 1970s. Figgins introduced or popularised both slab-serif and
sans-serif In typography and lettering, a sans-serif, sans serif (), gothic, or simply sans letterform is one that does not have extending features called "serifs" at the end of strokes. Sans-serif typefaces tend to have less stroke width variation than ...
typefaces, which have since become two of the main genres of typeface. He was also involved in local politics as a Councilman of the
City of London The City of London, also known as ''the City'', is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county and Districts of England, local government district with City status in the United Kingdom, city status in England. It is the Old town, his ...
.


Family and early life

The son of a bookkeeper, Figgins was born in 1766 and started his career as an
apprentice Apprenticeship is a system for training a potential new practitioners of a Tradesman, trade or profession with on-the-job training and often some accompanying study. Apprenticeships may also enable practitioners to gain a license to practice in ...
to the typefounder Joseph Jackson. He worked for Jackson from 1782 until Jackson's death in 1792. According to
Talbot Baines Reed Talbot Baines Reed (3 April 1852 – 28 November 1893) was an English writer of boys' fiction who established a genre of school story, school stories that endured into the mid-20th century. Among his best-known work is ''The Fifth Form at S ...
, Figgins was largely the manager of Jackson's foundry from about 1790 onwards due to Jackson's poor health. His wife was Elizabeth and he had sons Vincent, James, later an alderman and MP, Henry and four daughters.


Career

The main
historical source A historical source encompasses "every kind of evidence that human beings have left of their past activities — the written word and spoken word, the shape of the landscape and the material artefact, the fine arts as well as photography and film." ...
s for Figgins' career are: * the specimens he issued of the typefaces that he sold, which were first sheets and later books as his business expanded. *''Literary Anecdotes of the Eighteenth Century'' (1812), by his friend and patron the antiquarian and printer John Nichols *
Thomas Curson Hansard Thomas Curson Hansard (6 November 17765 May 1833) was an English pressman, son of the printer Luke Hansard. Early life and education Hansard was born in Clerkenwell, currently within the borders of London but at the time part of Finsbury divisio ...
's textbook on printing ''Typographia'' (1825), published towards the end of Figgins' career *''A History of The Old English Letter Foundries'' by
Talbot Baines Reed Talbot Baines Reed (3 April 1852 – 28 November 1893) was an English writer of boys' fiction who established a genre of school story, school stories that endured into the mid-20th century. Among his best-known work is ''The Fifth Form at S ...
(1887), who knew Figgins' grandson On Jackson's death, Figgins wanted to take the foundry over but could not afford to; it was instead purchased by William Caslon III. A member of the prominent Caslon typefounding family, he was seeking to set up a foundry independent of the Caslon foundry established by his grandfather William Caslon I. (Soon after taking over the Jackson foundry Caslon went bankrupt, although he was apparently able to rebuild the business until his retirement in 1807.) John Nichols, who believed in Figgins' talent, encouraged Figgins to open his own foundry. Figgins would many years later write to Nichols to thank him for his generosity during the beginning of his career:
I am greatly obliged to you for the very flattering mention of my name, but you have not done yourself the justice to record your own kindness to me: that, on Mr. Jackson's death, finding I had not the means to purchase the foundry, you encouraged me to make a beginning. You gave me large orders and assisted me with the means of executing them; and during a long and difficult struggle in pecuniary matters for fifteen years, you, my dear Sir, never refused me your assistance, without which I must have given it up. Do mention this—that, as the first Mr. Bowyer was the means of establishing Mr. Caslon— his son, Mr. Jackson—it may be known that Vincent Figgins owes his prosperity to Mr. Bowyer's successor.
Figgins' foundry was established at White Swan Yard,
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, moving in 1801 to West Street, Smithfield. (Both streets have been completely demolished because of urban redevelopment around the late nineteenth century, for
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and
Charterhouse Street Charterhouse Street is a street on the north side of Smithfield in the City of London. The road forms part of the City’s boundary with the neighbouring London Boroughs of Islington and Camden. It connects Charterhouse Square and Holborn C ...
respectively.) He was also commissioned by
Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the publishing house of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world. Its first book was printed in Oxford in 1478, with the Press officially granted the legal right to print books ...
(OUP) for work such as carefully repairing
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for a sixteenth-century Greek typeface. An early commission was to make a facsimile type for Macklin's Bible, commissioned by Thomas Bensley. The original type for the book was cut by Jackson, and Bensley decided to buy new type which matched the original. Instead of going to Caslon, who had Jackson's matrices, he asked Figgins. Figgins was able to make a perfect recreation of the type. He then worked on a similar job to finish the Double Pica (22-point size) type in Robert Bowyer’s edition of
David Hume David Hume (; born David Home; – 25 August 1776) was a Scottish philosopher, historian, economist, and essayist who was best known for his highly influential system of empiricism, philosophical scepticism and metaphysical naturalism. Beg ...
's '' The History of England'' which was being worked on by Jackson at the time of his death. Another early client was the luxury printer Peltro William Tomkins. In 1793, Figgins was one of the major type founders in London who formed an association with the goal of functioning as a
cartel A cartel is a group of independent market participants who collaborate with each other as well as agreeing not to compete with each other in order to improve their profits and dominate the market. A cartel is an organization formed by producers ...
for
price fixing Price fixing is an anticompetitive agreement between participants on the same side in a market to buy or sell a product, service, or commodity only at a fixed price, or maintain the market conditions such that the price is maintained at a given ...
. Figgins' company issued specimens of his types from 1793, first as sheets and later in book form. Examination of watermarks indicates that Figgins continued to use a dated title page for some years while changing the content of the book, so these were often later than the title page date. His sons also issued a specimen in 1838, soon after taking over management on Figgins' retirement, and in 1845.
Berthold Wolpe Berthold Ludwig Wolpe (29 October 1905 – 5 July 1989) was a German calligrapher, typographer, type designer, book designer and illustrator. He was born into a Jewish family at Offenbach near Frankfurt, emigrated to England soon after t ...
edited a reprint of his 1801 and 1815 specimens published by the Printing Historical Society. According to Nichols' son John Bowyer Nichols, Figgins was "an amiable and worthy man, and was generally respected."


Employees

Perhaps the strangest aspect of Figgins' career was its beginning, in which one of his tasks was to finish a Greek type begun by Jackson for Oxford University Press. Typefaces at this time were made by cutting the letterforms to be printed as steel punches. This was done by a
punchcutter Punchcutting is a craft used in traditional typography to cut letter punches in steel as the first stage of making metal type. Steel punches in the shape of the letter would be used to stamp matrices into copper, which were locked into a mould sh ...
, a skilled engraver. Vincent Figgins II in 1855 wrote that his father's career began in this way:
The mystery thrown over the operations of a Type-foundry, within my own recollection (thirty-four years), and the still greater secrecy which had existed in my father's experience, testifies that the art had been perpetuated by a kind of Druidic or Masonic induction from the first. An anecdote of my father's early struggles may illustrate this. At the death of Mr. Joseph Jackson, whom my father had served ten years as apprentice and foreman, there was in progress for the University Press of Oxford a new fount of Double Pica 2-point sizeGreek, which had progressed under my father's entire management. The then delegates of that Press – the Rev. Dr. Randolph and the Rev. W. Jackson – suggested that Mr Figgins should finish the fount himself. This, with other offers of support from those who had previously known him, was the germ of his prosperity (which was always gratefully acknowledged). But when he had undertaken this work, the difficulty presented itself that he did not know where to find the punch-cutter. No one knew his address; but he was supposed to be a tall man, who came in a mysterious way occasionally, whose name no one knew, but he went by the sobriquet of 'The Black Man'. This old gentleman, a very clever mechanic, lived to be a pensioner on my father's bounty—gratitude is perhaps the better word. I knew him and could never understand the origin of his sobriquet, unless Black was meant for dark, mysterious, from the manner of his coming and going from Mr. Jackson's foundry.
Wolpe investigated the topic of Figgins' punchcutters in the 1960s, finding that the Stephenson Blake foundry of Sheffield had a copy of his c. 1815 specimen with annotations noting the cutters of some types in pencil, suggesting that Figgins often commissioned work from two punchcutters about whom little is known named Perry and Edmonston. Wolpe noted that a Perry also cut a type for the Caslon foundry and suggested that Edmonston, who lived at Alfred Place, Cambridge Heath, is the same man as the punchcutter recorded as Edmiston who cut an extremely small 4.5pt Greek type for the Caslon foundry, known from 1828, according to Bowman "so small that its clarity is remarkable". Wolpe concluded, however, that "who the mysterious 'Black Man'...was, we may never be able to find out." John H. Bowman in his research on the history of printing Greek in Britain concluded that Figgins' account did not match Figgins or OUP's known Greek types: "I have not found anything answering its description. It may be that it is a mistake or another, Great Primer or 18pt, fontor indeed perhaps the difficulties of finding "the Black Man" were such that the type was never completed. I do not believe it can be the Double Pica that appears in Figgins' later specimens ee below for the style of that type would have been impossible at this early date." A Charles Perry is documented in news articles of the late 1820s as a punchcutter for Figgins. His career was halted by tragedy: on 6 December 1829, drunk and arguing with his common-law wife, he threw an iron at her and hit their son who was in his mother's arms, breaking his son's skull and killing him. He received a year's imprisonment. During a court case involving a theft in 1821, an employee of Figgins reported that "we have from twenty to thirty workmen."


Politics

Besides his business career, Figgins was a Common Councilman for the
ward Ward may refer to: Division or unit * Hospital ward, a hospital division, floor, or room set aside for a particular class or group of patients, for example the psychiatric ward * Prison ward, a division of a penal institution such as a pris ...
of
Farringdon Without __NOTOC__ Farringdon Without is the most westerly Wards of the City of London, ward of the City of London, England. Its suffix ''Without'' reflects its origin as lying beyond the London Wall, City's former defensive walls. It was first establis ...
of the
City of London The City of London, also known as ''the City'', is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county and Districts of England, local government district with City status in the United Kingdom, city status in England. It is the Old town, his ...
. In 1828 the
Radical Radical (from Latin: ', root) may refer to: Politics and ideology Politics *Classical radicalism, the Radical Movement that began in late 18th century Britain and spread to continental Europe and Latin America in the 19th century *Radical politics ...
candidate Henry Hunt and journalist
William Cobbett William Cobbett (9 March 1763 – 18 June 1835) was an English pamphleteer, journalist, politician, and farmer born in Farnham, Surrey. He was one of an Agrarianism, agrarian faction seeking to reform Parliament, abolish "rotten boroughs", restr ...
ran in a heavily publicised campaign in the multi-candidate seat of Farringdon Without (the top sixteen candidates were to be elected), running on a campaign of investigating how the City's funds were used. Cobbett's ''
Political Register The ''Cobbett's Weekly Political Register'', commonly known as the ''Political Register'', was a weekly London-based newspaper founded by William Cobbett in 1802. It published continuously until Cobbett's death in 1836. History Originally propou ...
'' reported a rowdy meeting on 26 December 1828 which degenerated into arguments, stating that Hunt, after first conceding that rumours that he had left his wife for another woman were true, said (speech is reported):
His opponent, Mr Figgins isited pot-houses where">pot-houses.html" ;"title="isited pot-houses">isited pot-houses whereit was a constant practice to sing songs of the most beastly and indecent description...songs that would almost make humanity shudder and yet these songs were allowed and applauded, and his opponent, Mr. Figgins, sat and laughed at them until his old rotten teeth almost dropped out of his head. He [Mr. Hunt] had heard that songs were sung at these houses that would not be tolerated by the lowest prostitutes that visited Carpenter's Coffee House, the ''Finish''...
[In response] Mr. Figgins never appeared before them with so much pleasure. It was an honour to him to have the abuse of this shameless fellow. (Loud murmuring and hisses.) After some considerable time, he proceeded, and accused Mr. Hunt of having turned away his own wife, and of having seduced the wife of Colonel Vince.–(Cries of "Off, off!") Mr. Hunt was infirm in talent as in virtue, and would they think of sending a detestable adulterer to represent them?...
Mr. Hunt aid thatas to Mr. Figgins' attack regarding the female alluded to, it was a mere cowardly attack on a woman.
Mr. Figgins asked if it were not true!
Mr. Hunt replied that such a question was never put in any other Court than the Spanish Inquisition. As to Mr. Figgins ever being guilty of such an offence–why no man would ever suspect him; the very appearance of the man was a denial to the charge.
The article reported that "a good deal more personal altercation" followed. Ultimately Cobbett withdrew before the election and Hunt lost; Cobbett's contemporary biographer Robert Huish claimed that "from the beginning of the meeting to the end it was one tissue of abuse uttered against Hunt and Cobbett hile Figgins and his alliesreceived from the two sturdy radicals some heavy blows...it is scarcely necessary to remark that neither of the radicals was successful...Mr. Hunt soon saw that he was no great favourite with the good people of that part of the city." Figgins came eighth in the poll and was one of the sixteen elected out of eighteen candidates; Hunt came last. Hunt's campaign attracted considerable attention, and a book was published the following year anthologising the events of the campaign "which has excited considerable interest in the public mind of the City." Figgins also reportedly advised in a meeting of 4 October 1827 against sending nightwatchmen out on patrol and supported the traditional approach that they waited in watchboxes, because (speech again reported):
if the watchman goes to sleep in his box, when you want him you know where to find him, but on the altered plan proposed, in case of an accident, there would be to seek him through half the public-houses in the ward
In 1829 William Heath published a cartoon, "The charleys ightwatchmenin grief or the funeral of the city watch boxe's" showing a procession of nightwatchmen protesting against the change with a banner of "Figgins for ever".


Typefaces

Under the pyrotechnics of Figgins' display faces, his body text faces, the types he first sold, have received less attention. His earliest faces, some being copies of earlier designs, are in the late "transitional" style, with affinities to faces such as
Caslon Caslon is the name given to serif typefaces designed by William Caslon, William Caslon I in London, or inspired by his work. Caslon worked as an Engraving, engraver of Punchcutting, punches, the masters used to stamp the moulds or Matrix (printi ...
,
Baskerville Baskerville is a serif typeface designed in 1757 by John Baskerville in Birmingham, England, and cut into metal by punchcutter John Handy. Baskerville is classified as a transitional typeface, intended as a refinement of what are now called ...
and its copy by the Fry Foundry, Bulmer and
Bell A bell /ˈbɛl/ () is a directly struck idiophone percussion instrument. Most bells have the shape of a hollow cup that when struck vibrates in a single strong strike tone, with its sides forming an efficient resonator. The strike may be m ...
. Nicolas Barker felt that Figgins' early types "constitute the largest and best of the 'transitional' group, in which the genius of Bodoni was most effectively translated into English." His later text faces are very clearly in the modern or Didone style, which became popular around the close of the eighteenth century. It has a sharper transition between thick and thin strokes and a more modular, geometric design. Reed speculates that "within a few years of the establishment of his foundry, the public taste...experienced a complete revolution...the circumstance may possibly account for the somewhat remarkable absence of any specimen bearing his name for a lengthened period p to 1815"
Matthew Carter Matthew Carter (born 1 October 1937) is an English type designer.A Man of Letters
designed a digital font based on his type for Bensley under the name of "Vincent Text" for ''
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'', introduced in 1999. The second part of Figgins' career, from around 1805, coincided with the rise of the mass-market printed
poster A poster is a large sheet that is placed either on a public space to promote something or on a wall as decoration. Typically, posters include both typography, textual and graphic elements, although a poster may be either wholly graphical or w ...
and an increasing need for dramatic
display typeface A display typeface is a typeface that is intended for use in display type (display copy) at large sizes for titles, headings, pull quotes, and other eye-catching elements, rather than for extended passages of body text. Display typefaces will ...
s. A new technology at that time, the "Sanspareil" matrix in which moulds are made by riveting a cut-out letterform to a backing plate, made casting these types easier than the earlier casting in sand and made the letters print more crisply. Although Hansard perhaps over-optimistically felt in 1825 that Figgins had "strayed less into the folly of fat-faced, preposterous disproportions, than either Thorne, Fry or Caslon," the other leading London typefounders of the time, Figgins came to sell many innovative, aggressive designs. What Figgins thought of his foundry's designs and the motivations behind them is not known; as is normal for typeface specimens of the period, his specimens make no comment on the types shown. Librarian and historian
James Mosley James Mosley (born 1935) is a retired librarian and historian whose work has specialised in the history of printing and letter design. The main part of Mosley's career has been 42 years as Librarian of the St Bride Printing Library in London, whe ...
, the leading contemporary expert on Figgins' career, suggests that the "unusually large range of lighter types" in his specimens suggest some reservations on his part towards the ultra-bold styles of the period, as does the line in his 1823 specimen book that asks the question "The increased fatness in JOB-LETTER is an improvement, but is it not in many cases carried to an extreme?" In 2014, graphic designer Leila Singleton commented "sure, Vincent Figgins was an important figure in the history of type, but let's face it -- his letterforms were imbalanced and hideous." Figgins was one of the first typefounders to sell "
fat face In typography, a fat face letterform is a serif typeface or piece of lettering in the Didone (typography), Didone or modern style with an extremely bold design. Fat face typefaces appeared in London around 1805–1810 and became widely popular; ...
" ultra-bold typefaces. These were serif faces based on the model of Didone letterforms, but with much bolder verticals. Matthew Carter's
Elephant Elephants are the largest living land animals. Three living species are currently recognised: the African bush elephant ('' Loxodonta africana''), the African forest elephant (''L. cyclotis''), and the Asian elephant ('' Elephas maximus ...
(also known as "Big Figgins"), bundled with some Microsoft software, is inspired by the Figgins' fat faces. He also offered a backslanted design, the first known. Figgins is the first known typefounder to have released a slab-serif typeface, a style of typeface with thick block "slab" serifs at the ends of the strokes. His first caps-only type first appeared, under the name of ''Antique'', in a specimen dated 1815 but containing paper with 1817 watermarks. It was probably based on earlier
lettering Lettering or Lettering design is an act or result of artfully drawing letters, instead of writing them simply. Lettering is considered an art form, where each letter in a phrase or quote acts as an illustration. Each letter is created with attent ...
models: Justin Howes found very similar lettering printed from a woodblock on an 1810 lottery advertisement. Opinions of the design varied from Nicolete Gray's view of the slab-serif as "the most brilliant typographical innovation of the nineteenth century", to Hansard showing it among other "typographic monstrosities!!!". In recent times, Hoefler & Frere-Jones described his slab serif as lumpy: " tgives the impression that its designer simply began with one letter and worked his way through the alphabet until the project was complete, never stopping to articulate the design's policies or anticipate any problems. In many ways, this design is two typefaces, its uppercase and lowercase being almost wholly unrelated." Both Mosley and Hoefler and Frere-Jones highlighted the perfectly circular, unstressed "O" as a part of the design which was abandoned in later slab-serifs, although Mosley describes it as "more logical" than vertical-stress designs that replaced it and felt that the type "suffers from being a pioneer design". Slab serifs proliferated during the nineteenth century, using alternative names including "Egyptian", "Ionics" and " Clarendons". In 1828 Figgins became the second typefounder to sell a face of
sans-serif In typography and lettering, a sans-serif, sans serif (), gothic, or simply sans letterform is one that does not have extending features called "serifs" at the end of strokes. Sans-serif typefaces tend to have less stroke width variation than ...
capitals, and quickly introduced a large range of sizes. Sans-serifs had become popular in sign lettering in the preceding decades; William Caslon IV had issued one sans-serif typeface around 1816 without apparent success (no uses are known). In
Walter Tracy Walter Valentine Tracy RDI (14 February 1914 – 28 April 1995) was an English type designer, typographer and writer. Biography Walter Tracy was born in Islington, London and attended Shoreditch Secondary school. At the age of fourteen he wa ...
's view "he made the style a reality", and for Mosley this "brought the design into typography". Figgins also introduced the term "sans-serif", not previously attested. The style had before been called "Egyptian" or "old Roman" characters. Figgins first showed a sans-serif, a quite bold design of normal width, in 1828, before quickly releasing a large range of sizes from 1832 onwards. David Ryan felt that the design was "cruder but much larger" than William Caslon IV's, making it a success. Many of his later sans-serifs were extremely condensed, apparently on the model of a Thorowgood face first known from about 1830. Figgins also sold shadowed faces, and blackletter faces in inline and double-inline versions. One type of typeface Figgins did not so much sell was decorated types with a pattern or artwork inside the letter, of a kind popular in France and particularly sold by Louis John Pouchée in London. He did issue a small decorated "Tuscan" (typeface with branching serifs) in the 1810s. Figgins' later ornaments were in a weighty style complementary to his typefaces. Figgins sold many non-roman types, according to Hansard Greek, Hebrew, Irish, Persian, Saxon, Syriac and Telugu by 1825. Hansard commented in 1825 that "no foundry existing is better stocked with these extraneous sorts...astronomical, geometrical, algebraical, physical, genealogical and arithmetical sorts". In 1825 he was hired by the linguist John Gilchrist to produce type for his proposed "Universal Character", a phonetic alphabet intended for transcribing foreign languages. He also offered a Pica-size face of Bengali, according to Fiona Ross "perhaps the first to be cut on a commercial basis". Figgins' later
ornaments An ornament is something used for decoration. Ornament may also refer to: Decoration *Ornament (art), any purely decorative element in architecture and the decorative arts *Ornamental turning *Biological ornament, a characteristic of animals tha ...
were in a weighty style complementary to his typefaces. Figgins' Greek typefaces are first shown in a specimen of 1815; at this time most were in the "old style" descending from the Grecs du roi; one was more in the Porson style. According to Bowman the next specimen (with an 1821 title page but some leaves dated 1822) has more types in the Porson style although one influenced by a type from the Wilson foundry. Bowman wrote of the Great Primer and Pica no. 3 of this specimen that "I think they are the most beautiful Greek type ever devised" and that his foundry became "the most important in the production of Greek type in England".


Retirement and later life

Figgins ran his foundry until 1836 when he retired to live at 1 Prospect Place,
Peckham Rye Peckham Rye is an open space and road in the London Borough of Southwark, London, England. The roughly triangular open space lies to the south of Peckham and consists of two contiguous areas, Peckham Rye Common to the north and Peckham Rye Park t ...
. He transferred his foundry to his two eldest sons, Vincent Figgins of Southgate and James Figgins, who issued a first specimen book under their own name in 1838. James Figgins (1811–1884) was elected to Parliament in 1868 as an MP for
Shrewsbury Shrewsbury ( , ) is a market town and civil parish in Shropshire (district), Shropshire, England. It is sited on the River Severn, northwest of Wolverhampton, west of Telford, southeast of Wrexham and north of Hereford. At the 2021 United ...
. Figgins died on 29 February 1844 at Peckham Rye, and is buried in
Nunhead Cemetery Nunhead Cemetery is one of the Magnificent Seven cemeteries in London, England. It is perhaps the least famous and celebrated of them. The cemetery is located in Nunhead in the London Borough of Southwark and was originally known as All Saint ...
in a memorial designed by William Pettit Griffith, shared with his wife Elizabeth, sons Vincent Figgins II and James Figgins, and Vincent Figgins II's wife Rosanna. The memorial is now Grade II listed. The second Vincent Figgins is also commemorated at his local church, Christ Church, Southgate.


Legacy

Figgins' foundry moved to 3–7 Ray Street,
Clerkenwell Clerkenwell ( ) is an area of central London, England. Clerkenwell was an Civil Parish#Ancient parishes, ancient parish from the medieval period onwards, and now forms the south-western part of the London Borough of Islington. The St James's C ...
in 1865, and adjacent buildings on Farringdon Road. The building survives, and is also Grade II listed as one of the few surviving type foundry buildings in London. It still retains the original cast iron railings bearing the
monogram A monogram is a motif (visual arts), motif made by overlapping or combining two or more letters or other graphemes to form one symbol. Monograms are often made by combining the initials of an individual or a company, used as recognizable symbo ...
VJF (Vincent & James Figgins). For some years the headquarters of ''
Guardian Unlimited ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...
'', as of 2017 it is the headquarters of
Company Pictures Company Pictures is a British television production company which has produced drama programming for many broadcasters. It was set up in 1998 by Charles Pattinson and George S. J. Faber, George Faber, colleagues at BBC Films. Their first film wa ...
. Besides type the company also made a boxed
Kriegsspiel ''Kriegsspiel'' is a genre of wargaming developed by the Prussian Army in the 19th century to teach battlefield tactics to officers. The word ''Kriegsspiel'' literally means "wargame" in German, but in the context of the English language it ref ...
set in
type metal In printing, type metal refers to the metal alloys used in traditional Movable type, typefounding and hot metal typesetting. Historically, type metal was an alloy of lead, tin and antimony in different proportions depending on the application, b ...
. While Figgins' display types were influential in design, the types themselves were little used by the late nineteenth century: from the mid-century larger metal types were largely displaced in use by
pantograph A pantograph (, from their original use for copying writing) is a Linkage (mechanical), mechanical linkage connected in a manner based on parallelograms so that the movement of one pen, in tracing an image, produces identical movements in a se ...
-engraved
wood type In letterpress printing, wood type is movable type made out of wood. First used in China for printing body text, wood type became popular during the nineteenth century for making large display typefaces for printing posters, because it was lig ...
, being much lighter and easier to handle, although the company continued to hold the matrices into the 1950s. By the late nineteenth century it was clear that for large-run printing of
body text __NOTOC__ Body text or body copy, or running text, is the text forming the main content of a book, magazine, web page, or any other printed or digital work. This is as a contrast to both additional components such as headings, images, charts, foot ...
the future was
hot metal typesetting In printing and typography, hot metal typesetting (also called mechanical typesetting, hot lead typesetting, hot metal, and hot type) is a technology for typesetting text in letterpress printing. This method injects molten type metal into a mo ...
, which cast fresh new type for each printing job, and in the case of the
Linotype machine The Linotype machine ( ) is a "line casting" machine used in printing which is manufactured and sold by the former Mergenthaler Linotype Company and related It was a hot metal typesetting system that cast lines of metal type for one-time use. Li ...
cast each line in rigid blocks. In 1897 James Figgins commented "the Lino is ruining us entirely". The styles of Figgins' work also became less popular around the beginning of the twentieth century, with new
Art Nouveau Art Nouveau ( ; ; ), Jugendstil and Sezessionstil in German, is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts. It was often inspired by natural forms such as the sinuous curves of plants and ...
-influenced display type designs and greater interest in the styles of earlier centuries for text typefaces. However, there was a attracted attention from the
Victoriana Victoriana is a term used to refer to material culture related to the Victorian period (1837–1901). It often refers to decorative objects, but can also describe a variety of artifacts from the era including graphic design, publications, ph ...
revival of interest in nineteenth-century typography from the 1930s onwards, with coverage of his work from Nicolete Gray and use of nineteenth-century styles by figures such as Robert Harling and
John Betjeman Sir John Betjeman, (; 28 August 190619 May 1984) was an English poet, writer, and broadcaster. He was Poet Laureate from 1972 until his death. He was a founding member of The Victorian Society and a passionate defender of Victorian architect ...
. These styles were also used in the design of the
post-war A post-war or postwar period is the interval immediately following the end of a war. The term usually refers to a varying period of time after World War II, which ended in 1945. A post-war period can become an interwar period or interbellum, ...
Festival of Britain The Festival of Britain was a national exhibition and fair that reached millions of visitors throughout the United Kingdom in the summer of 1951. Labour Party cabinet member Herbert Morrison was the prime mover; in 1947 he started with the ...
. In 1907 Figgins' company passed to James Figgins' nephew, R. H. Stevens, and by 1909 it had moved to 89 Southwark Street, also listed. In 1933 it merged with another typefounding company, P. M. Shanks and Co., to form the new company Stevens, Shanks & Sons Ltd., which carried on as a going but slowly declining business casting metal type into the 1970s. The materials of Figgins' foundry were acquired by St Bride Library, London, in 1968–73, along with others from Stevens Shanks, through the work of James Mosley, then its librarian. Mosley briefly worked at Stevens Shanks in the 1950s and has written articles and given talks on Figgins' work. According to Mosley some of the largest matrices were sold for
scrap Scrap consists of recyclable materials, usually metals, left over from product manufacturing and consumption, such as parts of vehicles, building supplies, and surplus materials. Unlike waste, scrap can have monetary value, especially recover ...
by the 1950s, and some damaged by unwise attempts to cast type from them in the twentieth century using high-pressure modern casting equipment, but many of Figgins' materials are extant and have been used for research, for example by the digital font company Commercial Type and its co-founder Paul Barnes. Numerous digital fonts have been published based on Figgins' work.


Notes


References


Cited literature

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External links


"1821" specimen
(contains leaves dated 1822 and 1823)
Specimen of Printing Types by Vincent Figgins, Letter Founder
1834 * Vincent & James Figgins
Specimen book, 1845
Published by Figgins' sons who took over his foundry on his retirement in 1836; dated to the year after Vincent Figgins' death. It showcases many different decorative typefaces of the period, including some notable ornamented designs.
V&J Figgins specimen
1858?
Specimen book of types by V. & J. Figgins
c. 1897, digitisation: Noord-Hollands Archief
Type Founding and Printing During the 19th Century
(1900), a book by Vincent Figgins' grandson James.
James Mosley's Gallery
of Figgins designs and memorabilia. {{DEFAULTSORT:Figgins, Vincent English typographers and type designers 1766 births 1844 deaths Burials at Nunhead Cemetery Councilmen of the City of London Letterpress font foundries of the United Kingdom