#louis luce

fournier’s oblique silhouette flowers

first illustration is page 117 from pierre-simon fournier’s seminal Manuel Typographique [tome ii, imprimé par l`auteur, se vend chez barbou, paris, 1766]: vignettes 322-3, the fleuron pair of interest. john ryder tells us: «… because it is cast obliquely on the typebody, is capable of many variations in arrangement. Its immediate origin may be a crude little design of Luce [louis-renè luce, the third royal punch-cutter of the imprimerie royal] but certainly binders’ stamps of a similar kind existed in the sixteenth century.»  [john ryder, A Suite of Fleurons, charles t. branford, boston, 1957, p40]. «Fournier’s flowers earned him the admiration of the world.» [ibid., p39].

two formes showing composition with montype’s recuttings of the pair [english monotype 475-6]:

2nd illustration: letterpress on hahnemühle ingres, silver gray;

3rd illustration: letterpress on kitakata.