HIS 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}

[Μ] 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.”