Francis Thibaudeau - La Lettre d'Imprimerie. Origine-Développement-Classification & 12 notices illustrées [...] - 1921-1924

Original edition of this reference work on typographic art and engraving from the origins to the 19th century, with particular attention given to the French contribution in the field.

Work published by Francis Thibaudeau (1860-1925), a typographer who designed the first rational system for classifying characters by developing the extensive typographic catalogs of foundries Renault and Marcou and of Peignot et Cie.

Complete in three volumes, the last designed as a supplement to the first two. The first two volumes include a preface by Georges Lecomte and a portrait in the frontispiece by Bernard Naudin. They contain 517 black-and-white reproductions within the text and 65 plates outside the text, some in color, printed on Alfa paper from the Papeteries Bergès. The third volume, dedicated to Eugène Grasset and Georges Peignot, is also richly illustrated within the text with vignettes, banners, tailpieces, and various ornaments, as well as outside-the-text plates, most often in color.

Volume I: Origin and development of the printing letter: from Phoenician letters to Didot's Roman; the metal letter in the title and text page: from manuscript times to the end of the 19th century - Volume II: Classification of the printing letter in the 19th century (the typeface in determining families: Didot, Antique, Egyptian...); The Arts of the Book: engraving and casting of characters, typographic printing machines, typesetting machines, clichéing and galvanoplasty, ink and typographic rollers, color in printing, relief engraving, intaglio engraving, lithography and its derivatives, paper, binding. Volume III: Essential baggage; notions of typography & technical vocabulary; the printing character; classification of the printing letter; the modern work; methods, styles, and manners; adaptation of French foundry equipment to the main types of work; advertising; an attempt at typographic renovation of an advertising magazine; tracing sketch.

Condition: cardboard bindings in excellent condition, slight rubbing on the headbands and corners. Interior is fresh and clean. Very beautiful copy.

Francis Thibaudeau
The Letter of Printing. Origin-Development-Classification & 12 illustrated notices on the Arts of the Book. (Volumes 1 and 2). French manual of modern typography. Introductory course for all those interested in this art.
Paris, At the Publishing Office, 1921, 1924
3 volumes in-8 (22 x 16.5 cm); xxv-698 pages (pagination continues on the first two volumes) + 583 pages.