Georges Louis Jean Baptiste Peignot (; 24 June 1872, Paris – 28 September 1915, Givenchy-en-Gohelle) was a French type designer, type founder, and businessman who managed the G. Peignot & Fils foundry until his death in combat during World War I. The father of four children (including poet Colette Peignot, under her alias Laure), under his leadership the G. Peignot & Fils foundry became one of the most well-known and remarkable French typography houses of the twentieth century (an "elite house", according to a former French Prime Minister): over 17 years, he created or launched several prestigious fonts, including Grasset, Cochin, and Garamont.
Early years Born in 1872, Georges Peignot was the fourth child of eight. His father, Gustave Peignot (1839–1899), an engineer who had graduated from the prestigious engineering institute now known as Arts et Métiers ParisTech, was the head of a fixed spaces foundry in Paris that specialized in the fabrication of hand-set metal type to achieve letter-spacing. It was created in 1842 by Pierre Leclerc and bought and directed by his mother, Clémentine Dupont de Vieux Pont (1815–1897), the widow of Laurent Peignot.
Georges Peignot attended the Chaptal College in Paris, but left without a qualification. Following this, he undertook an apprenticeship with his godfather, Émile Faconnet, master intaglio printer. Faconnet, an engraver, was a close friend of Marie Laporte-Peignot's parents. Marie would become the wife of Gustave Peignot and the mother of Georges and Faconnet would become Georges' godfather. A portrait of Marie Laporte-Peignot, as a girl, was painted by Auguste Renoir. It may be seen at Limoges museum, and belongs to Renoir's family.
In 1890, Georges was admitted to École nationale supérieure des arts décoratifs an "Arts Déco" school. In 1891, he moved to Germany, first in Leipzig in the Schwinger foundry where he discovered the world of printing and learned punchcutting. In 1892, he was in Hamburg in the Gentzsch foundry« Avant le front » ("Before the font"). Postcard from Hermann Genzsch to Georges Peignot, 1915 (?) & letter from Charles Peignot to M. Genzsch, 1926 (see Bibliothèque Forney, Fonds Peignot, B2/D8) where, with the son of that family, who was of the same age, he toured the services and workshops. His passion about type continued and he passed all his spare time admiring international typographic catalogs.
Back in France in 1893, Georges Peignot spent two and a half years in military service, where he was graduated as sergeant, the highest rank for those who do not have the baccalaureate. In 1896, he married Suzanne Chardon, daughter of a master intaglio printer in charge of chalcography for the Louvre, whose workshops still may be seen at 10 rue de l'Abbaye, in Paris (courtyard). They had four children (Charles, 1897; Madeleine, 1899; Geneviève, 1900; Colette, 1903). In 1896, he was hired to work in his father's "G. Peignot" foundry. Georges Peignot was responsible for the management of recently acquired types (G. Peignot et Fils had absorbed Cochard & David foundry and Longien foundry) and possibly, for creating new fonts. (Gold, Soul and Ashes of Lead: the Epic of Peignot) In 1898, his father, became ill and transformed the company into a Kommanditgesellschaft on behalf of "G. Peignot et Fils" and distributed the shares to his eight children. He had time to appoint Georges co-manager before dying the following year. In 1899, Georges Peignot officially became sole manager of the company. Board members were Robert Peignot, eldest son, engineer in charge of manufacturing, Georges Peignot, and Charles Tuleu, husband of Jane Peignot, the eldest daughter, and the owner of the rival foundry Deberny. In 1906, Paul Payet, husband of Julia Peignot, the second daughter and close ally of Gustave Peignot's widow, top executive in a railways company, joined the board on the instruction of the widow.See notarial records of November 6, 1898 (Bibliothèque Forney, Peignot Fund, B6 / D). See also "Plate XXXI. - Contract between Gustave and his two eldest, Robert and George" in . At the behest of Georges Peignot's mother, a second contract will include the step-brother and competitor, Charles Tuleu, and will replace the original (Bibliothèque Forney, Peignot Fund, B1 / D1, B1 / D2)
Grasset (1898)
In 1897, as a young industrialist aged 25, Georges Peignot met Eugène Grasset already famous in the Art Nouveau world for his furniture, posters, stamps, titles and patterns of books, textiles, printed wallpapers, and other items. Grasset had freely adapted to the alphabet of Nicolas Jenson (1471) with the intention of using it to print a book on his own method for ornamental composition that was inspired by the courses he gave to the Guérin school. With his father's agreement, Georges Peignot acquired Grasset's alphabet, got an official patent on October 7, 1897, for the typeface under the name "Grasset", and gave Henri Parmentier, the workshop's punchcutter, the mission to engrave it. For harmonious compositions, he decided to offer thirteen sizes of the same type, and « for the first time in a French workshop, the scale of sizes of a character [was] created by photographic reductions of a genuine drawing », according to Thibaudeau,.
In the fall of 1898 a medieval novel, Les aventures merveilleuses de Huon de Bordeaux, chanson de geste, was published in Grasset, chosen because the Middle Ages are the favorite epoch of Art Nouveau subjects. The world of typography was alerted and revealed very supportive. In 1900, only seven sizes were punched, but orders arrived for other sizes. Georges Peignot and Francis Thibaudeau, a high-quality master typographer he had hired, created a small catalog, that was discreet, but very tasteful. After sending the catalog to all important printers, the orders poured into the company, and compliments from specialized press and art connoisseurs were garnered. In the courtyard of the Boulevard de Montrouge (later renamed "boulevard Edgar-Quinet") where they settled for 34 years, the Peignot workshops suddenly became insufficient.On the Boulevard Edgar-Quinet (numbers 66, 68, 70 and 72) in Paris, workshops and apartments are now destroyed. But the entrance door still carries a « PL » monogram (Peignot-Laporte)! The company had to move to the corner of Cabanis and Ferrus streets (XIVth arrondissement) in Paris, and the new plant opened in 1904.
The success earned Georges Peignot, 29, the recognition of his peers and he became treasurer of the Chambre syndicale (typographic trade association). His own work was also copied: in June 1902 the justice seized forged types of Renault foundry and the two foundries went to court. Surprisingly, the infringement case was lost in 1905 and the company G. Peignot & Fils had to pay the costs for having accused the Renault foundry, which asserted that their work had been inspired by a Gryphe work, a Lyon publisher of the sixteenth century amateur, Jenson, whose work was in the public domain and could be copied. The judges had no sensitivity to the particular drawing of the reed and other specific qualities of Grasset.
Two of Georges Peignot's brothers, Robert (engineer of Arts et Métiers) and Lucien (engineer of the École centrale), sailed to the United States where they knew they could find the most modern automatic typographic machines.« 6.9.1902. Le paquebot Lorraine emporte pour New York, Chicago, mes deux fils Robert et Lucien… (The Lorraine cruiser carries to New York, Chicago, my two sons Robert and Lucien…) », (Bibliothèque Forney, Fonds Peignot)
Auriol and other fonts (1902)
In 1898, Georges Peignot created an Art Nouveau typeface for George Auriol (aka Georges Huyot), a gifted singer-poet-painter. A year later, Auriol proposed to use it for "la Française-légère". Georges Peignot accepted the order on 11 October 1899, and launched the punchcutting despite family's opposition. (Gold, Soul and Ashes of Lead: the Epic of Peignot) In 1902 the complete alphabet was available in five sizes. Success was around the corner again, but the career of the new typeface was not so productive as Grasset: Française-légère is a display typeface, unlike Didot or Garamond devoted to serious works, and it's intended for short texts, advertising, subtitles, etc. Therefore, the use was not so frequent, nor the replacement of lead fonts: for a foundry, it was not a good deal.
During the following years display-type production was still privileged: Georges Peignot's foundry launched "l’Auriol Labeur " (Auriol book, 1904), "Française-allongée" (1905), "Auriol Champlevé" (1906), the series of eight "Robur" typefaces (black, pale, striped, clair-de-lune, etc., 1907). Promoting these "fancy" characters, Georges Peignot played with the classic structure of the letter (unchanged since the fifteenth century), and ran the risk that its customers would sacrifice readability for the beauty of its characters, which were very "Art Nouveau". He advocated for a "Typography", which meant – for him – that a typeface comes with many sizes, italics, vignettes, and ornaments. Sort of typographic philosophy, now described as a family.
In the continuity, the foundry launched a series of ornaments and vignettes for the Grasset typeface. The creations of George Auriol were also enshrined in two series of « creepers, flowers, flames » that Francis Thibaudeau laid out in two booklets (Vignettes Art Français et Ornements français, 31 pages to be published again in the Spécimen général few months after). G. Peignot et Fils also released a booklet entitled, Album d’application des nouvelles créations françaises (Catalog for applications of new French creations, 1901), a pamphlet written by Francis Thibaudeau in favor of Art Nouveau.
Publication of the Spécimen (1903) Only after having launched "Grasset" (thirteen sizes) and "Française-légère" (five sizes), Georges Peignot decided to publish a Spécimen and thereby benefit from the enormous success of its new characters. All the fonts created or acquired by the G. Peignot & Fils foundry were available in it.
The Spécimen consists of two volumes of 450 and 200 pages (the first appears at the end of July 1903, the second in 1906). The layout is generous: seven chapter headings in four colors, airy presentation of each typeface or ornament, often in two colors, with variation of different sizes, are funny or informative sentences. Beneath their aesthetic success, the two volumes also were useful: all the technical details that can be used in a printshop were clearly set out in tables, lists, diagrams: return rates and prizes of old fonts, sizes of various folded formats, instructions on cutting lines, etc. The text is serious and didactic: the last chapter is written by Francis Thibaudeau, who painted a retrospective of typography and its scenery, from the Renaissance to present day.
Cochin (1912)
Because the market for Grasset was slowing, Georges Peignot sought a new text-dedicated typeface. In 1910, he launched the "Bellery-Desfontaines", an upscale fantasy character in rupture with Art nouveau style: any vegetal form was excluded.