LAMESLE (Claude). Épreuves Générales des Caracteres qui se trouvent chez Claude Lamesle Fondeur des Caracteres d'Imprimerie.1742

Paris: Rue Galande, Small 4to (222 x 172 mm), a wide-margin copy, 81ff. title page, 71 leaves of ornament specimens (7 of which are double-page, mounted on stubs), followed by 9 leaves of music (3 of which are double-page, mounted on stubs), title and music specimens printed in red and black, printed throughout within a double border, the specimens are clean and crisp, marbled endpapers, contemporary calf, rubbed, joints cracked, corners rubbed through, spine tooled in gilt with original red morocco label lettered in gilt, a very good copy. An fine and important early French type specimen showing an interesting array of types of various periods, some dating back nearly two centuries, and some in the latest fashion. Of this specimen book Updike spoke very highly "Lamesle issued in 1742 an extremely handsome and dignified specimen... This book, both in type and ornaments, I think, presents better than any other the output of French foundries during the last quarter of the seventeenth and the first half of the eighteenth century." "Lamesle's specimen book of 1742 was meticulously planned, with much of the text used for the specimen settings running on continuously from roman to italic and from one size to the next. His types were consistently numbered from start to finish, with Greek and Hebrew included in the numeration. Ornaments, signs, titlings and initial letters of various sizes were shown at appropriate junctures in the sequence, making the book a very comprehensive and helpful guide to printers deciding what they needed to order from him."—Dreyfus. Updike I, 270; Audin, 27; Bigmore & Wyman I, 417; Birrell & Garnett 35; Dreyfus, Aspects of French Eighteenth Century Typography, 1982.