LOUIS JOHN POUCHÉE, circ. 1815.

This Frenchman started a foundry in Great Wild Street, Lincoln’s Inn. He had probably been established a few years when his first specimen was issued in 1819, the most interesting portion of which was a somewhat lengthy address to the public, setting forth the principles on which his “New Foundry” was to be conducted. He mentions that “only four Type Foundries (exclusive of mine) are worked in London at this time,” and declares his intention of breaking down the monopoly they assumed. The specimen itself is not remarkable.

In 1823, he took out the patent for this country for Henri Didot’s system of polymatype[748] which consisted of a machine capable of casting from 150 to 200 types at each operation, each operation being repeated twice a minute. This result was to be obtained by means of a matrix bar which formed one side of a long trough mould into which the metal was poured; and, when opened, “the types are found adhering to the break bar like the teeth of a comb, when they are broken off and dressed in the usual way.” Pouchée became agent in England for this novel system of casting which, says the editor of the partial reprint of Hansard’s Typographia, writing in 1869, was still used successfully in France at that date. {362}

The attempt to introduce this system into England went far to ruin Pouchée; and, according to the above authority, “on his failure to sustain the competition of the associated founders,[749] Didot’s machine and valuable tools were purchased by them through their agent, Mr. Reed, Printer, King Street, Covent Garden, and destroyed on the premises of Messrs. Caslon and Livermore.”

Despite this unfortunate speculation, Pouchée (who appears for some time to have had a partner named Jennings),[750] issued another Specimen Book in 1827, dated from Little Queen Street, London, in the advertisement of which he again referred to the fact that there were still only four letter-foundries in London (exclusive of his own), and took credit to himself for bringing about a reduction of 12 per cent. in the prices of his opponents. The specimen, which shows Titlings, Roman and Italic, Egyptians, Blacks and Flowers, is of little merit and is marked by a great preponderance of heavy faces.

About the same time,[751] he issued a price list of all kinds of printers’ materials, styling himself “Type Founder and Stereotype Caster.” In the beginning of 1830 he abandoned the business, which was sold by auction. The Catalogue included a large quantity of stereotype ornaments, as well as 20,000 matrices and punches, moulds, presses, and 35 tons of Type. The lots were variously disposed of at low prices among the other founders.

SPECIMENS.