VINCENT FIGGINS, 1792.
This excellent letter-founder was bound apprentice to Joseph Jackson
in the year 1782, at the age of 16, and remained in his service till
Jackson’s death in 1792. During the last three years of his master’s
life, as has been already said, the entire management of the foundry
devolved on him; and the experience and connection so acquired fully
qualified him to succeed to and increase the business to whose success
he had materially contributed.
Contrary to expectation, however, Vincent Figgins found himself, on
Jackson’s death, left in the position of an ordinary outsider; and not
being able or willing to pay the sum demanded, which was in excess of
what he conscientiously considered the concern to be worth, he failed
in succeeding to the foundry, which was purchased by William Caslon III.
Left thus to his own resources, Mr. Figgins was constrained to enter
on an independent undertaking. Encouraged by the advice of Mr. John
Nichols, (who, as the intimate friend of Jackson, had had many
opportunities of observing the character and talent of his apprentice),
he determined to rear a foundry in his own name. “A large order,” says
Hansard, “for two founts, Great Primer and Pica, of each 2,000 lbs—even
before he had printed a single specimen—gave the young adventurer the
best heart to proceed; neither did his liberal patron suffer him to
want the sinews of trade as long as such assistance was required.”
Writing to Mr. Nichols, fifteen years afterwards, in reference to a
passage in {336} the _Literary Anecdotes_, Mr. Figgins thus gracefully
acknowledged the generosity which befriended him at 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.”[698]
Mr. Figgins established himself in Swan Yard, Holborn, and at the
outset of his undertaking an opportunity occurred which served as
largely as any other to establish his reputation as an excellent
artist. This was the completion of Macklin’s _Bible_, for which, as
has already been narrated, Mr. Jackson had, in 1789, cut the beautiful
2-line English Roman fount, in which the first part of the work is
printed. “When Mr. Bensley had proceeded some way in the work he wished
to renew the fount; but not choosing to purchase it of Mr. Caslon,
the then possessor of Jackson’s matrices, he applied to Mr. Figgins
to cut a fount to correspond with that he had begun upon. Mr. Figgins
undertook the task; and the fount, which was a perfect imitation of
the other, was put into use to begin _Deuteronomy_ about the year
1793.”[699] Of the excellence of this performance both as a facsimile
and as a work of art, a reference to the splendid _Bible_[700] itself
and the no less splendid edition of Thomson’s _Seasons_,[701] in which
the same type was used in 1797, is the most eloquent testimony. Mr.
Figgins received the honour of being named on the title-page of the
latter work, which still remains one of the finest achievements of
English typography.[702] His services were also employed in a similar
manner to complete the Double Pica fount for R. Bowyer’s edition of
_Hume_, which, it will be remembered, was in course of execution by
Jackson at the time of his death. The splendid types in which these
masterpieces of the typographic art were executed, established Mr.
Figgins at once in all the reputation he could desire. {337}
[Illustration: 77. Two-line English Roman cut by Vincent Figgins,
1792. (From the original matrices.)]
In 1792, he put forward a single-leaf specimen of the 2-line English
fount on its completion. In the following year, having added a
“long-bodied” English and a Pica, he issued his first Specimen Book.
This interesting document of five leaves (title, address, and three
specimens) was printed by Bensley, and contained the following
prefatory note, which will be read with interest as the first public
announcement of this Foundry:―
“At a period when the Art of Printing has, perhaps, arrived to a
degree of excellence hitherto unknown in the annals of literature,
the improvement of Types will no doubt be generally considered
an object worthy of attention. Vincent Figgins having had the
advantage of ten years’ instruction and servitude under the late
ingenious Mr. Joseph Jackson (great part of which time he had
_the management of_ his Foundery), flatters himself he shall not
be thought arrogant in soliciting the patronage of the Master
Printers, and other Literary Gentlemen, when he has commenced an
entire new Letter Foundery, every branch of which, with their
support and encouragement, he hopes he shall be enabled to execute
in the most accurate and satisfactory manner; assuring them that
his best endeavours shall be exerted to complete so arduous an
undertaking. Although as yet he has but few founts finished, he
is anxious to submit a specimen for approbation. All orders he
may be favoured with shall be duly attended to and punctually
executed. . . The Italics of the following founts, with a Long
Primer, Brevier and English, are in great forwardness—specimens of
which shall be printed as soon as possible. _May 1793._”
One of the first public appearances of the English fount was in the
8vo edition of Milton’s _Paradise Lost_, begun in 1794 in monthly
parts, and published {338} by Parsons in 1796.[703] The announcement
accompanying Part I makes special reference to “a new and beautiful
Type cast on purpose for this work by Vincent Figgins.” The Italic of
this fount is specially elegant.
Mr. Figgins’ indefatigable industry enabled him to issue in the next
year an enlarged Specimen Book with the same title and address as
before, but containing twelve sheets of specimens, four of which were
dated 1794.
He met with further encouragement in his new undertaking by the
patronage of the Delegates of the Oxford Press, under whose direction
he completed a fount of Double Pica Greek, the progress of which had
been interrupted by the death of Mr. Jackson. In connection with
this circumstance, Mr. Vincent Figgins the younger, in the remarks
appended to his facsimile reprint of Caxton’s _Game of the Chesse_, has
preserved an anecdote, which it will be interesting to repeat here,
not only as having reference to Mr. Figgins’ early productions, but as
illustrating a curious phase of the mystery of type founding at that
day:―
“The mystery thrown over the operations of a Type foundry,” says Mr.
Vincent Figgins II in 1855, “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 Druidical 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 Greek, 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.”
Shortly after the completion of the Greek fount, Mr. Figgins was called
upon {339} to execute a fount of Persian under the direction of the
eminent Orientalist, Sir William Ouseley.[704] This type was used in
Francis Gladwin’s _Persian Moonshee_[705] in 1801, and other works; and
was commended by Dr. Adam Clarke as a beautiful letter in the finest
form of the Nustaleek character.
About the same time, he cut a fount of English Télegú from a MS., for
the East India Company, in whose library, says Hansard, the “matrices
or moulds” were afterwards deposited. Of this fount he issued two
specimens about 1802, one a folio, the other a quarto; and about the
same time put forward a specimen of “Two-line letters” in the same form.
In the year 1800, Mr. Figgins was engaged by Messrs. Eyre and Strahan,
His Majesty’s Printers, to cut and cast an improved fount of Small Pica
Domesday; and, in 1805, a new Pica of the same character, expressly
for the purpose of printing the splendid and valuable publications
of the Commission of Enquiry into the State of the Records of the
Kingdom.[706] In the years 1807 and 1808, he was also employed by His
Majesty’s Printers in Scotland on three further {340} founts (Pica,
Long Primer, and Brevier) for the purpose of printing the Records of
that portion of the Empire.[707] This improved Domesday (a specimen of
which may be seen in Johnson’s _Typographia_), differs considerably
from that of Jackson, in which the _Domesday Book_ had been printed in
1783,[708] and became, subsequently, the uniform character adopted for
extracts from Domesday and other ancient Charters and Records quoted in
modern topographical works.
Mr. Figgins’ good fortune in the first results of his new business
was somewhat tempered by the fact that, within a few years of the
establishment of his foundry, the public taste with regard to the
ordinary Roman letter experienced a complete revolution, setting
aside the elegant models on which the punches of Jackson and his
contemporaries had been cut, in favour of the new fashion which came in
with the nineteenth century.
To accommodate himself to this fashion must have involved Mr. Figgins
in a considerable sacrifice of his early labour and industry, and the
circumstance may possibly account for the somewhat remarkable absence
of any specimen bearing his name for a lengthened period.
In the appendix to Stower’s _Printers’ Grammar_, 1808, which exhibits
the “modern faces” of Caslon and Fry, the compiler regrets not being
able to show specimens of the new cut types from Mr. Figgins’ foundry,
“but understands that in a few months Mr. F. will have fully completed
his specimens.”
These new founts appear in a specimen of 1815, a book which contains
24 pages of large letter from 16-line to 4-line; 35 pages of Roman
and Italic from French Canon to Pearl; together with Titlings, Black
Letter, and Flowers, and a few Orientals.
Two years later, Mr. Figgins put forward a specimen of Newspaper
founts, showing a series of eight sizes, on a broadside sheet,—the
first specimen of the kind, we believe, specially addressed to the
proprietors of the public press. The title of this sheet is printed
in the 5-line German Text, which Hansard describes as a typographical
curiosity.
Speaking of Mr. Figgins about 1812, Mr. Nichols remarks (in the passage
which called for the acknowledgment already quoted): “With an ample
portion of his kind instructor’s reputation, he inherits a considerable
share of his talents and industry, and has distinguished himself by the
many beautiful specimens he has produced, and particularly of Oriental
Types.”[709] {341}
The foundry had, in the year 1801, been removed from Swan Yard,
Holborn, to West Street, West Smithfield, where, besides the work of
completing the founts most commonly in use, several important and
interesting tasks of a special character had engaged Mr. Figgins’
attention. Among these may be mentioned the Small Pica Hebrew for
_Bagster’s Polyglot_,[710] in 1817, which had the distinction in its
day of being the smallest Hebrew with points in England. Dibdin, in
his _Bibliographical Decameron_ (ii, 408), while specially commending
the _Polyglot_, quotes a letter from Mr. Bagster in reference to the
Figgins Hebrew fount, which it will be interesting to repeat here.
Writing to Dibdin, Mr. Bagster remarks:
“The difficulty to the compositor of the Hebrew with points far
exceeds every other language. You are doubtless aware that every
line is composed of three distinct lines; i.e., points and accents
both above and below the line of letters. I wrote to the printer
and letter founder to display these, and one of the letters (_that
of Mr. Figgins which follows_) is enclosed as their accounts
nearly agree. The difference between the fount with points, and
that which is without them is very striking. The former requires
25 points and accents and 136 mixed letters; whereas the latter
has only 32 altogether and one stop—a difference between the
founts of 132 characters—the first with points exceeding by so
considerable a number, and some are so minute that one ounce is
found to contain no less than 236.
“When I embraced the design of this work, no suitable fount of
Hebrew existed. It became therefore necessary to cut the steel
punches and the brass (_sic_) matrices before the fount of letter
could be cast; and thus our country is enriched by the _creation_
of this new fount.
“The Greek and Roman type I think will also be admired for the
delicate neatness of their execution. The Hebrew and Greek types
are of the neatest form, and the latter is that of Porson.” . . .
Mr. Figgins’ letter enclosed is as follows:―
“The number of Hebrew matrices are 82; these are all first cast on
a minion body, and 54 of them are again cast on a diamond body, to
admit of marks and accents being put over them. The accents and
points are 25 in number, of which there are, of the thinnest sort,
about 240 to the ounce. The number of boxes required to contain
the fount are:― {342}
“Minion Hebrew 82
Spaces (4), em and en quads (2), large quad (1) 7
Diamond Hebrew 54
Spaces same as Minion 7
Minikin accents and marks 25
Spaces, etc., same as Minion 7
───
182
“I am, Sir, your obedient servant,
“West Street, London, 16th Oct., 1816. V. FIGGINS.”
The Syriac used in Bagster’s _Polyglot_[711] was not cut by Mr.
Figgins; but he had previously produced three sizes of this character,
viz.: a Double Pica, English, and Long Primer (two founts), under the
direction and partly at the expense of Dr. Claudius Buchanan, the
eminent Indian missionary and Orientalist, whose work on _Christian
Researches in Asia, with notices of translations of the Scriptures into
the Oriental Languages_, had been published at Cambridge, in 1811. At
the time of his death, in 1815, Dr. Buchanan was engaged in editing for
the British and Foreign Bible Society a Syriac _New Testament_, which
appeared in the following year, printed in Figgins’ type.[712]
The founts already specified—to which may be added a Small Pica
Irish, copied from the copper-plate engravings in Charles Vallancey’s
_Irish Grammar_, and some additional Greeks, cut under Porson’s
superintendence—constituted the chief features of Mr. Figgins’ foundry
in respect of the learned and foreign founts. With regard to its
progress in the characters of more general use, it will be sufficient
to quote Mr. Hansard’s note, written in 1825, and based doubtless on an
examination of the excellent, specimen of 1821, with its additions in
1822 and 1823:—“No foundry existing is better stocked with matrices for
those extraneous sorts which are cut more with a view to accommodation
than profit; such as astronomical, geometrical, algebraical, physical,
genealogical, and arithmetical sorts; and I feel it particularly
incumbent on me to add that, as his specimen bears equal rank with
any for the number and beauty of its founts, so he has strayed less
into the folly of fat-faced preposterous disproportions, than either
Thorne, Fry or Caslon. I consider his Five-line Pica German text a
typographical curiosity.”[713] {343}
The following is Hansard’s summary of the foreign and learned founts
contained in this foundry in 1825:―
MR. FIGGINS’ FOUNDRY.
_Domesday._[714]―
Pica, Small Pica.
_German Text (Ornamental)._―
Five-line Pica.
_Greek._[715]―
Great Primer, English, Pica, Small Pica, Long Primer, Brevier.
_Hebrew._―
English with points, Pica, Small Pica, Ditto with points.[716]—Long
Primer, Nonpareil.
_Irish._―
Small Pica.
_Persian._―
Paragon.
_Saxon._―
Pica, Small Pica, Long Primer, Brevier.
_Syriac._―
Double Pica, English, Long Primer, Brevier.
_Télegú._[717]―
English.
_Black._―
Double Pica, Great Primer, English, Pica, Long Primer.
Further specimens were issued in 1824 and 1826, each indicating the
rapid growth of the rising foundry between those dates. They were
followed in 1827 by a compact little 16mo volume; and from that date
specimens are frequent.
Mr. Figgins died at Peckham, Feb. 29th, 1844. He was for several years
Common Councillor for the Ward of Farringdon Without; “an amiable and
worthy character, “says Nichols,” and generally respected.“ He had
relinquished business in 1836, leaving it to his two sons, Vincent
Figgins II and James Figgins, who issued their first specimen book,
a handsome quarto, under the style of V. & J. Figgins, in 1838. Mr.
Vincent Figgins II died in 1860,[718] when the business was carried
on by Mr. James Figgins I and his son, Mr. James Figgins II. On the
retirement of the former, then Mr. Alderman Figgins, M.P., the entire
management devolved on his son, the present proprietor. The foundry was
removed from West Street, Smithfield, to Ray Street, Farringdon Road,
in 1865. {344}
LIST OF SPECIMENS, 1792–1832.
No date. A Specimen of Printing Types by Vincent Figgins, Letter
Founder, Swan Yard, Holborn Bridge, London. (1792.) 4to, 2 pp.,
. . . . (J. F.)
No date. A Specimen of Printing Types by Vincent Figgins, Letter
Founder, Swan Yard, Holborn Bridge, London. (1793.) 4to, 5 pp.
. . . . (J. F.)
1794. A Specimen of Printing Types by Vincent Figgins, Letter
Founder, Swan Yard, Holborn Bridge, London. 1794. 4to. . . . . (W.
B.)
1802. Specimen of a fount of Télegú Types cast by V. Figgins,
London. 1802. folio. . . . . (J. F.)
(Also in quarto.)
No date. Specimen of 2-line Letters cast by Vincent Figgins, West
Street, West Smithfield, London. Broadside. (1802.?) . . . . (J.
F.)
1815. Specimen of Printing Types by Vincent Figgins, Letter
Founder, West Street, West Smithfield, London, 1815. 8vo. . . . .
(Ox. Univ. Pr.)
1817. Newspaper Founts cast by Vincent Figgins, West Street, West
Smithfield, London, 1817. Broadside. . . . . (Ox. Univ. Pr.)
1821. Specimen of Printing Types by Vincent Figgins, Letter
Founder, West Street, West Smithfield, London, 1821. 8vo. . . . .
(J. F.)
(Re-issued with additions 1822 and 1823.)
1824. Specimen of Printing Types by Vincent Figgins, Letter
Founder, West Street, West Smithfield, London, 1824. 8vo. . . . .
(Caxt. Cel. 4403.)
1826. Specimen of Printing Types by Vincent Figgins, Letter
Founder, West Street, West Smithfield, London, 1826. 8vo. . . . .
(J. F.)
1827. Specimen of Printing Types by Vincent Figgins, Letter
Founder, London, 1827. 16mo. . . . . (Caxt. Cel. 4408.)
1832. Specimen of Printing Types by Vincent Figgins, Letter
Founder, West Street, West Smithfield, London, 1832. 8vo. . . . .
(Caxt. Cel. 4417.)
{345}
[Illustration]