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ABOUT

Fonderie Laurent&Deberny

French foundry which was started under the simple name Deberny ca. 1828 by Alexandre de Berny (1809-1881), who had been given the printing business of Honoré de Balzac by his mother, Mme. de Berny, who was Balzac's first mistress. Balzac had bought the typesetting firm of Jean-François Laurent in 1827 [funded partly by money borrowed by his mistress, and incorporated by Balzac with the help of typesetter André Barbier, who left the business in 1828 after it sank into debt due to the spendthrift of Balzac], and so, de Berny and Laurent worked together until 1840, when de Berny bought Laurent out in full. During this time, they made an extensive type library, and bought the wood-engraved letterstock of Pierre DuRouchail. De Berny changed his business name to Deberny. In 1877, Deberny associated himself with Charles Tuleu, his illegitimate son (with farmer woman). Tuleu inherited the firm in 1881 upon the death of Alexandre, and ran it until 1914. He added many fine typefaces, including a series of ancient Latins, many scripts and neo-elzeviriennes, and a collection of foreign alphabets. In 1914, a childless Tuleu proposed the merger of his business with that of the family of his wife, Jeanne Peignot, the sister of Georges Peignot, who ran Peignot et Cie, a rival type foundry. Jeanne refused to be associated with her brother and thus prevented any collaboration between the firms. Tuleu teamed up instead with an old school friend, Robert Girard. Ownership of the business passed to Girard in 1921 when Tuleu retired. The firm was renamed Girard et Cie. Talks were started with Peignot about a merger. Deberny&Peignot was incorporated on July 1, 1923. Charles Peignot now controlled Deberny's classic punches and matrices, the Peignot moderns, and two typefounding factories in Paris and Corneuve.

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INTERNAL LINKS
Foundries of the 19th century ⦿ Extinct 20th century foundries ⦿ Type design in France ⦿