Empty French Double Lower Case

This case configuration is that of a case encountered by Ciaran Walsh in 2026 and is shown by Jacques André & Christian Laucou's Histoire de l'Écriture Typographique: Le XIX Sieclè Français as Fonderie Deberny et Cie's Le Livret typographique of 1904, apart from having two of the large boxes subdivided into 6 small boxes (it is not clear whether those subdivisions are temporary or fixed). The case shown above has the same configuration in both the top and bottom half, and that configuration is as for a French lower case, although it has 56 boxes in each half, whereas the lower case section of the Bas de Casse shown in Diderot's Encyclopedia (1751-80), and by Fertel's La Science Practique de l'Imprimerie of 1723 have 54, albeit with a few of the smaller boxes in different positions. Indeed, Muller in Nouveau Manuel de Typographie in c.1910 remarked on there being many other versions of the lower case.

The layout of the type in the case is shown at French Double Lower Case, although that case fills two of its large boxes with six subdivisions, which may or may not be a fixed part of the case. Also, although both cases are two lower case constructions in the one case, thus a double lower case, Deberny's layout shows it in use for two founts of upper case characters.