31 Facts About Vincent Figgins

Vincent Figgins was a British typefounder based in London, who cast and sold metal type for printing.

Vincent Figgins's company was extremely successful and, with its range of modern serif faces and display typefaces, had a strong influence on the styles of British printing in the nineteenth century.

Vincent Figgins introduced or popularised both slab-serif and sans-serif typefaces, which have since become two of the main genres of typeface.

Vincent Figgins was involved in local politics as a Councilman of the City of London.

Vincent Figgins was born in 1766 and started his career as an apprentice to the typefounder Joseph Jackson.

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Vincent Figgins worked for Jackson from 1782 until Jackson's death in 1792.

Vincent Figgins's wife was Elizabeth and he had sons Vincent, James, later an alderman and MP, Henry and four daughters.

On Jackson's death, Vincent Figgins wanted to take the foundry over but could not afford to; it was instead purchased by William Caslon III.

Vincent Figgins' foundry was established at White Swan Yard, Holborn, moving in 1801 to West Street, Smithfield.

Vincent Figgins then worked on a similar job to finish the Double Pica type in Robert Bowyer's edition of David Hume's The History of England which was being worked on by Jackson at the time of his death.

Vincent Figgins' company issued specimens of his types from 1793, first as sheets and later in book form.

Examination of watermarks indicates that Vincent 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.

Vincent Figgins's sons issued a specimen in 1838, soon after taking over management on Figgins' retirement, and in 1845.

Wolpe investigated the topic of Figgins' engravers 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 engravers about whom little is known named Perry and Edmonston.

Vincent Figgins's 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.

Besides his business career, Vincent Figgins was a Common Councilman for the ward of Farringdon Without of the City of London.

Vincent Figgins's opponent, Mr Figgins [visited pot-houses where] it was a constant practice to sing songs of the most beastly and indecent description.

Mr Hunt [said that] as to Mr Vincent Figgins' attack regarding the female alluded to, it was a mere cowardly attack on a woman.

Vincent Figgins was one of the first typefounders to sell "fat face" ultra-bold typefaces.

Vincent 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.

In 1828 Vincent Figgins became the second typefounder to sell a face of sans-serif capitals, and quickly introduced a large range of sizes.

Vincent 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.

Vincent Figgins sold shadowed faces, and blackletter faces in inline and double-inline versions.

One type of typeface Vincent 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 Pouchee in London.

Vincent Figgins sold many non-roman types, according to Hansard Greek, Hebrew, Irish, Persian, Saxon, Syriac and Telugu by 1825.

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Vincent Figgins offered a Pica-size face of Bengali, according to Fiona Ross "perhaps the first to be cut on a commercial basis".

Vincent Figgins ran his foundry until 1836 when he retired to live at 1 Prospect Place, Peckham Rye.

Vincent Figgins 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 Vincent Figgins was elected to Parliament in 1868 as an MP for Shrewsbury.

The second Vincent Figgins is commemorated at his local church, Christ Church, Southgate.

The styles of Vincent Figgins' work became less popular around the beginning of the twentieth century, with new Art Nouveau-influenced display type designs and greater interest in the styles of earlier centuries.