Bas de Casse

*ç   é   -'e 12345678
...bc   d    s2pt
esp
f gh90
aeoe
zlmni opqwk½cd
y1ptfi:cdtn
xvut espaces ar .,cad
rats

This French lay is given in Lefevre: Guide Pratique du Composition d'Imprimerie (1880). Lockwood (1894) shows a fairly similar Old and 18th Century case, and Legros (1916) shows another French version, all with the left side the same, apart from em dash rather than ..., and the right including or excluding ffi and ; and moving w. The companion Upper case is Lefevre.

Note that j is in the Upper, and é and ç in the Lower. The Lower lay is similar to Diderot (1751) except that the long s has been dropped, and for example & has moved to the Upper and w to the Lower. Even as late as 1940, OUP still followed the French pattern of putting i in the box where English/U.S. lays put h.

The actual configuration is the same as Diderot, and differs from English/US cases, eg the style of 1½pt space, w, k, demi-cadratin and ... boxes, and the é box.

Other empty cases
ie with the boxes left blank
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ie with characters assigned to boxes
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This page was written in 2006 by David Bolton and last updated 23 January 2006.