Printing was an invention of a century, and surely it has catalysed a turning moment of human history to a prelude of our information society at present...'Communication' has never been the same word as it was in the past since the commercialisation of printing technology. Reviewing the economic and cultural development of France since the 19th century, printing technology carried in fact a very decisive role in the diameter of communication dimension as well as collective social development in the country, particularly in Paris, be it a stabilisation of society or a stipulation to riot and ideological reform. When one understands the number of circulation of newspapers in France in the last decades of the 19th century in France, one could imagine how developed the printing industry was at that moment and how effective the movement was in cultivating the modernism of Paris. Of course, printing was not founded by the French, and there must be more interesting findings on the printing history in those founding countries like China and Germany, but similar to other industries of the good old times, I find it fascinating to trace back some forgotten path of the development in Paris where industries and human activities assured the shinning moment of this focal point of the World at its time.
Having had special attention on the 'other side' of the story when I look at old-time publications, advertising posters, antique books and old maps in the occasions of exhibitions on old Paris or antique bookstores, the mystery of the 'making of’provokes me a lot with the lure to review the old printers in Paris and the French-made printing machine in the 19th century, and finally I got some impulse after visiting the Musée de l'Imprimerie at Nantes recently. The info hereof notes a few Parisian printers and printing machine producers I have encountered in the past few months.
Massiquot - the paper cutting machine invented by Guillaume Massicot and obviously it is a very important component in the printers' daily operation at the time. The antique model I encountered at the Musée de l'Imprimerie was produced at 16 rue Amelot, Paris.
A. Foucher - it should have been a famous brand of printer, but I do not obtain much information about the brand except the two addresses where the machines were produced: 62 Boulevard Jourdan and 18 rue de Varenne. Apparently the printer model does not produce anymore.
E. Ravasse - it was located at 203 rue Lafayette and 61 rue Monmartre, and no information can be found about the brand of the printer.
Lhermite Succrs - it was situated at 208 Faubourg Saint Martin, and again no information can be retrieved.
Poirier Frères - it was a printing house located in the Loire Valley region founded in 1875. It printing included works of Grosse Duperon and in 1894, it released a coloured map of canton of Mayenne under the book 'petite géographie du département de la Mayenne'.
Intertype - this is an amazing machine I found at Musée de l'Imprimerie. It is an adaptation of the US-produced Linotype for editing and printing. The machine was manufactured by Société Intertype owned by Hermann Ridder. Ridder was the editor of 'Gazette de New York' and the machine enabled the printing to be done in France. Similar machines existed such as the Typograph manufactured in UK. As per the demonstrator at the Musee in Nantes, the machine was firstly produced in 1884 but Internet info shows that the machine was primarily released in March 1913. I suspect the person referred to the history of Linotype instead.
Imprimerie LeMercier - the company was a big name of lithographic printing during the late 19th century. I first came across the name of the company from the posters of Alphose Mucha. At the time, the posting of Mucha's posters fully expressed the taste and preference of the Parisian on pop-art and culture of the time. The famous posters with Sarah Bernhardt since 1894 including the theatre plays of Gismonda, La Samaritaine, Médée, Hamlet, Lorenzaccio etc were all printed by LeMercier. Mucha's works were also disseminated through the printing of Imprimerie F. Champenois. The printer was located at 66 Boulevard Saint Michel in the 1900's, and well, the flowing time leaves behind only an identical address of the clinical centres for organisations like Comité National contre Maladies Respiratoires at present. Famed with LeMercier during the Belle Epoque of Paris were there also Chevalier and Gobait who printed artworks of other important artists such as Horace Vernet, Fragonard, Perrot, Daguerre etc.
Marinoni - it is a huge rolling machine used for the printing of large papers including newspaper of Le Petit Journal. On every issue of the Journal, a small line appeared at the right hand bottom on the second last page of the paper, 'imprimé sur la machine rotative chromo-type de MARINONI' and so there is no doubt how influential the machine was during the era. Indeed, Marinoni's printing kingdom began since 1849 when he set up his workshop at rue de Vaugirard. He introduced the gas motor (latterly known as the 'Lenoir Motor') since 1860 and then invented his 'rotative' model in 1867. The machine attracted distinctive focus of spotlights at the World Expo, and 8,000 machines were claimed sold in 1886. He took the position of director of Le Petit Journal since 1883 and introduced colour printing to the Journal in 1889, thus bringing a breakthrough to the Journal and raised the circulation level to a flying height. An interesting document has been compiled by Musée des Arts et Métiers of Paris at
www.arts-et-metiers.net/pdf/carnet_marinoni.pdf.
History does leave its footprint on its printing spree.
