[FR] Duplat

1. Overview

17?? - 1823. J. L. Duplat. 1823 - 1824. Widow of J. L. Duplat. Merged into Laurent, Balzac & Barbier.

Duplat is given as a predecessor of Laurent, Balzac & Barbier in the " History of Deberny et Peignot [http://amgweb.rit.edu/dphist1.htm]" at the Cary Graphic Arts Collection of the Rochester Institute of Technology library's website devoted to the 20th century magazine Arts et Métiers Graphiques: http://amgweb.rit.edu/index.htm. This history includes, as Appendix A to its Section III, a family tree of the "History of the Fonderie Deberny et Peignot, 1748 - 1972": http://amgweb.rit.edu/pdf/appendixa.pdf. This is in turn based on an (anonymous?) article: "Deberny et Peignot: La Belle Époque de la Typographie." Caractère, Vol. 12 (December 19750: 33-34.

However, I do not know the degree to which he might be termed a typefounder. The Catalogue des livres de la bibliothèque de feu M. A[ntoine-] F[rançois] de Fourcroy (Paris: Tilliard Frères, 1810), digitized by Google Books, lists Epreuves des vignettes et fleurons politypés, gravés en bois par J. L. Duplat . Other sources confirm his reputation as a wood engraver. The Précis de la géographie universelle, vol. 1, of Malte-Brun (Paris: Chez Fr. Buisson, 1810) indicates that the Œuvres d'Archimède translated by F. Peyrard contains "plus de 500 Figures gravées sur bois avec un soin extrême, par J. L. Duplat." (553)

The process of polytyping is similar in principle to stereotyping. In stereotyping, a matrix of paper or (earlier) plaster is formed from an original of set type, and then a printing plate is cast from the matrix. In polytyping, the original is a wood engraving and the matrix is formed by casting semi-fluid metal against it. (The final printing plate is cast from this matrix.)

It would seem likely that Duplat was primarily an engraver who ran a polytype foundry, but I don't really know this.