Deberny et Peignot’s “Clichés et gravures”, 1934

Despite the modernist surge of the 1930s, Clichés et gravures reflected a continued taste for 19th-century typographic elements, offering an extensive range of initials, crests, and motifs, many of which were outdated, highlighting a nostalgic adherence to traditional imagery amidst evolving visual trends.

The taste for the attributes, fleurons, ornaments and vignettes which populated the world of typography in the 19th century was still great in 1934, since the Deberny et Peignot foundry published a copious collection of these ingredients which have made a lasting contribution to the visual environment for decades. Clichés et gravures thus include intertwined initials, coat of arms and crests for cities, “clichés medals”, various subjects, including numerous religious motifs, wrapping paper, postcards, geographical maps and calendars. And, above all, a host of business attributes that reflect human activities in all registers of work and manufacturing.

It should be noted that the foundry does not hesitate to propose a whole bunch of anachronistic subjects, most of which date from the previous century, and for some seem obsolete, like models of cycles or automobiles that are no longer in use. The company goes so far as to present maps of France without Alsace and Lorraine. As for the “new commercial attributes”, they are not numerous, and remain poorly representative of the rise of modernity in fields as diverse as fashion or transport.

We can think that this edition corresponds to a renewed need for photographs and engravings for representations and activities that are immutable or whose actors seek to emphasize the traditional aspect. Deberny et Peignot took everything from the old repertoires produced half a century earlier, without the hassle of sorting between what could appear totally out of date and what could now be seen as tradition.

Document: École Estienne.