The art of writing on stone in the 1830s: the work of Émile Niveduab in Bordeaux by Michael Twyman. Small quarto. 114 pages, 96 illustrations, 13 in colour. In grey paper-covered boards, blocked in gold.

This monograph is the first to explore the work of the artiste-écrivain lithographe, an essential worker in the nineteenth-century lithographic trade in France and elsewhere. It describes the working practices, tools and skills of the lithographic writer in general, but focuses on one highly-skilled practitioner, Émile Niveduab (1796–1877), and the repertoire of letterforms and writing styles he used. Niveduab’s work has survived in a remarkable collection, which seems to have been passed down through the family. He was trained as a lithographic writer in Paris before moving to Bordeaux, where he worked throughout the 1830s, first for the established letterpress and lithographic firm of Faye and later for his own press. The collection’s five hundred or more items – including labels, tickets, invitations, invoices, price-lists, advertisements and administrative documents – provide an unparalleled record of the work of a lithographic letterer at the peak of his skills and at a time when lithography was emerging as a serious player in the field. 

About the author: Michael Twyman is Professor Emeritus of Typography & Graphic Communication at the University of Reading. He has written on a wide range of printing-historical subjects, specializing in lithography. His most recent monographs are A history of chromolithography: printed colour for all (2013) and John Phillips’s lithographic notebook (2016).

 The text was originally published in the Journal of the Printing Historical Society (2020), and is reprinted here with some revisions and the addition of an index. Copies are available at £12.00 to members of the Printing Historical Society (for this discount please contact the publisher or the Society).