Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-m9kch Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-12T16:14:11.723Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

An Economy of Delight: Court Artisans of the Eighteenth Century

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 June 2012

Michael Stürmer
Michael Stürmer
Affiliation:
Professor of Medieval and Modern History, Friedrich Alexander Universität
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Where virtuoso talents were required by the courts, great and small, of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Europe, the protectionist system of guilds was suspended, according to Dr. Stürmer. In a society where status had to be attested to by conspicuous consumption, of which the sovereign himself was the most avid practitioner, the finest artisans in the fields of interior decoration and furnishings often attained the status of “court artisans,” in which they enjoyed many of the freedoms of laissez-faire that members of the guilds denied themselves as well as their competitors. In the end, however, the Revolution that swept away the guild economy also destroyed this expedient whereby excellence and entrepreneurship had been fostered.

Type
Research Article
Information
Business History Review , Volume 53 , Issue 4 , Winter 1979 , pp. 496 - 528
Copyright
Copyright © The President and Fellows of Harvard College 1979

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Mercier, L. S., Tableau de Paris, 4 vols. (Amsterdam, 1780), vol. 1, 283–284.Google Scholar

2 Ibid., and vol. 4, 121.

3 Weiss, Johann Adams, “Preisschrift: Ueber die Vortheile und Nachtheile der Zünfte und Gilden …” in Verhandlungen und Schriften der Hamburgischen Gesellschaft zu Beförderung der Künste und nützlichen Gewerbe, vol. 3, 1795, 204.Google Scholar For aspects of the crisis in France, see, Braudel, / Labrousse, , Histoire économique et sociale de la France, vol. 2, 1660–1789 (Paris, 1970)Google Scholar; Vovelle, Michel, La chute de la monarchie, 1787–1792 (Paris, 1972).Google Scholar For Germany, see Abel, Wilhelm, Agrarkrisen und Agrarkonjunktur (Hamburg, 1978)Google Scholar, see also Abel's, magisterial study, Massenarmut und Hungerkrisen im vorindustriellen Europa (Hamburg, 1974).Google Scholar

4 Watson, F. J. B., The Wrightsman Collection, vols. 1 and 2: Furniture, Gilt Bronzes, Carpets (New York, 1966), vol. 2, 589.Google Scholar

5 “Lettres patentes du Roy Données en faveur des Arts & Métiers du Fauxbourg Saint Antoine. Du mois de Février 1657, registrées en Parlement & au Chastelet de Paris,” in, Recueil des Edits, Déclarations, Arrests et Reglements concernant les Arts et Mestiers de Paris & autres Villes du Royaume (Paris, 1701), 174–176. See also Guide du Corps des Marchands et des Communautés des Arts et Mestiers Tant de la Ville & Fauxbourgs de Paris, que du Royaume (Paris, 1766), 15–29 (the anonymous author was probably E. O. Pary). For a comprehensive account see Watson, , Wallace Collection Catalogues: Furniture (London, 1956), lix–lx.Google Scholar

6 Walker, Mack, German Home Towns. Community, State, and General Estate 1648–1871 (Ithaca, 1971), 73–118Google Scholar; Hufton, Olwen, The Poor of 18th Century France (London, 1973)Google Scholar, passim. Encyclopédie, vol. 9, 913 (“maîtrise”).

7 Fleischhauer, W., Barock im Herzogtum Württemberg (Stuttgart, 1958), 64–67Google Scholar and passim.

8 Volk, P., “Die bildende Kunst am Hofe Max Emanuels,” in Emanuel, Max, Bayern und Europa um 1700, Exhibition catalogue (Munich, 1976), 136–137Google Scholar; M. Spindler, Handbuch der bayerischen Geschichte, vol. 2, 572.

9 For Paris, see Watson, Wrightsman Collection, 589; for Berlin, Stengel, W., Alte Wohnkultur in Berlin und in der Mark … (Berlin, 1958)Google Scholar, passim; Kreisel, Heinrich, Die Kunst des deutschen Möbels (Munich, 1970), vol. 2, 279–280.Google Scholar The statistical figures after von Lamprecht, G. F., Von der Kameralverfassung und Verwaltung der Handwerke, Fabriken und Manufakturen in den Preussischen Staaten … (Berlin, 1797), 514–515.Google Scholar

10 Wolf, P. A., “Das Werk des Mainzer Hofschreiners Franz Anton Herrmann (1711–1770),” in Mainzer Zeitschrift 65 (1970), 1–33, esp. footnote 9.Google Scholar

11 The ébéniste privilégié J. F. Oeben died in 1764, leaving behind a wife and some children (one of his daughters was to be the mother of Eugene Delacroix), a large workshop, and more than 20,000 livres of debt, which so far had caused little embarrassment and in fact seemed to have been largely ignored by both Oeben and his creditors; see the extensive settlement agreed upon by the widow and the creditors, printed in Stratmann, R., “Der Ebenist J. F. Oeben” (Dissertation, Heidelberg, 1971)Google Scholar, app. 6.

12 “Priviléges accordez aux ouvriers qui demeurent dans la gallerie du Louvre, 22. Dezember 1608”; “Confirmation de privilèges …, Mars 1671”; “Edit du Roy pour l'Establissement d'une Manufacture des Meubles de la Couronne, aux Gobelins, registré en Parlement le 21 Décembre 1667,” in Recueil des Edits 119–136.

13 Ibid., 124 f.

14 Ibid., 135 f.

15 Almanach des Négociants (Brussels, 1757), 297.

16 Volkmann, J. J., Neueste Reisen durch Frankreich …, vol. 1 (Leipzig, 1787)Google Scholar; Schlosser, , “Ueber das neue französische System der Policeyfreyheit …” in Ephemeriden der Menschheit 1 (1776), 127.Google Scholar

17 Fleischhaur, Barock im Herzogtum Württemberg, 227. For Bavaria, see Hartmann, C. P., “Luxuskäufe des Münchener Hofes in Paris 1718–1727,” in FRANCIA 1 (1973), 350–360.Google Scholar

18 Sedlmaier/Pfister, Die Fürstbischöfliche Residenz zu Würzburg. Textband (Munich, 1923), 95.Google Scholar

19 Walker, German Home Towns, for the text for the decree.

20 Huth, Hans, “Das Berliner Tischlermeisterstück,” in Pantheon. 2 (1928), 540–542Google Scholar; and Stengel, Alte Wohnkultur in Berlin, 93–106. For Mainz, see, Wolf, “Mainzer Hofschreiner,” passim. For Württemberg, see, Fleischhauer, Barock, 288, where the ducal administration is quoted as stating: “in massen man gern sähe, wenn den angehenden Meistern solche Meisterstucke aufgegeben würden, welche brauchbar und leicht zu verkaufen seien” (1775).

21 Himmelheber, “Puchwiser, Boulle und die ‘Boulle-Möbel’ für München,” in Max Emanuel, Bayern und Europa, 210–264.

22 Fleischhauer, Barock, 120 f., 310 f.

23 Such was the case in Mainz in the 1730s, see Wolf, “Mainzer Hofschreiner,” 7.

24 When the Fürstbischof of Würzburg Friedrich Karl von Schönborn had refused to buy a baroque secretaire saying “das derlei machines zu fürstlicher Meublierung nicht mehr schicklich,” the unfortunate maker applied to Schönborn's successor, pointing out that he had been recently converted to Catholicism, and asking the Prince Bishop to buy the piece “und solchergestalten ihn von dem trohenden Untergang fürstmildest zu retten.” Quoted in von Freeden, M. H., Aus den Schätzen des Mainfränkischen Museums, 2nd ed. (Wurzburg, 1973), 28.Google Scholar

25 Almanach Parisien en Faveur des Etrangers et des Personnes curieuses, (Paris, 1784), 20. For a detailed sociology of the clientele, see, Verlet, P., French Interior Decoration in the 18th Century, (London, 1967).Google Scholar

26 Verlet, , “Le commerce des objects d'art et les marchands-merciers à Paris au XVIIIe siècle,” in Annales 1958, 10–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar See, also Eriksen, S., Early Neo-Classicism in France, (London, 1974).Google Scholar

27 The expression was used by Prince Bishop Lothar Franz von Schönborn, who in 1714 sent a messenger from Bamberg to Frankfort to acquire exotic veneers that had come from Holland, as quoted in von Freeden, M. H., ed., Quellen zur Geschichte des Barocks in Franken unter dem Einfluss des Hauses Schönborn (Würzburg, 1955)Google Scholar, I. T. I. Halbbd. 292, n. 345.

28 Fleischhauer, Barock, 310.

29 Ibid., 312.

30 Weber, E. M., “Bamberger Hofleben im 18. Jahrhundert” (Dissertation Erlangen, Bamberg, 1939), 84.Google Scholar

31 On Roentgen, see, Huth, Hans, Abraham und David Roentgen und ihre Neuwieder Möbelwerkstatt, 2nd ed., (Munich and New York, 1974).Google Scholar Huth has laid the foundation for all future research into the economics and the technology of this remarkable manufacture of the eighteenth century.

32 On Boulton see the comprehensive study by Goodison, Nicholas, Ormolu. The Work of Matthew Boulton (London, 1974).Google Scholar

33 Becker, M., “Restaurierung des Grossen Berliner Kabinettschrankes von David Roentgen-Holzrestaurierung,” in Neue Museumskunde 14 (1971), 22–39Google Scholar; and W. Gummelt, “Restaurierung … Metallrestaurierung,” ibid. 15 (1972), 205–212.

34 See, e.g., Watson, Wrightsman Collection, vol. 1, 186–190, 212–214; see also Eriksen, Early Neo-Classicism, 132–139.

35 See, e.g., Roentgen's correspondence with one of his highly-placed clients, the Margravina of Baden at Carlsruhe, printed in Himmelheber, G., “Beobachtungen an unbekannten Roentgen-Möbeln,” in Jb. der Staatlichen Kunstsammlungen in Baden-Württemberg 1 (1964), 217–239.Google Scholar

36 Verhandlungen und Schriften der Hamburgischen Gesellschaft zur Beförderung der Künste und nützlichen Gewerbe, vol. 1 (1791), 64. For Paris, see Exposition de 1806. Rapport du Jury sur les produits de l'industrie française (Paris, 1806).

37 The figure for Riesener is given by Verlet, Möbel von J. H. Riesener (Darmstadt, 1960), 9Google Scholar, but it seems to be rather a minimum of well documented deliveries. After the collapse of the firm, David Roentgen in a petition to the King of Prussia put his computed turnover at 2,000,000 Reichsthaler, which would amount to an average per annum in the region of 100,000 Reichsthaler (= 380,000 livres), see the printed extract in Huth, Abraham und David Roentgen, 107.

38 Mohl, K. F., Zwo Preisschriften ueber die Frage: Wie können die Vortheile, welche durch das Wandern der Handwerksgesellen möglich sind, beförderte und die dabei vorkommenden Nachtheile verhütet werden? Welche von der Königl. Societät der Wissenschaften in Göttingen gekrönt wurden (Erlangen, 1798), 35 f.Google Scholar

39 Fleischhauer, Barock, 315 f.

40 Stengel, Alte Wohnkultur, 110–112.

41 G. Volk, “Bildende Kunst,” 136.

42 Verlet, Möbel von J. H. Riesener, 7 f.

43 Himmelheber, “Puchwiser” 261.

44 See, e.g., the Royal declaration of November 17, 1717, which expressly referred to the chain reaction of impending bankruptcies in the luxury trades and followed the same principle that had been expressed by the supreme court over all merchant affairs in its ruling of May 6, 1678, printed in full in Code Marchand. Nouvelle édition des conférences des ordonnances de Louis XIV (Paris, 1762), 164–170 and 254–258.

45 For the prospectus of the Hamburg lottery, see, Huth, Abraham and David Roentgen, plates 3a and 3b. See also Himmelheber, “Beobachtungen an unbekannten Roentgen-Möbeln.” (See fn 35, above.)

46 Huth, Abraham and David Roentgen, passim.

47 Book III, ch. 6.