CHAPTER XVIII.

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}

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.)

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