ANTIQUE: Jean Grasset 'Salvages' 1780 to 1793

Jean Grasset worked Les Salvages, a paper mill, between 1780 and 1793, the year of French Revolution 2.

Jean and his father Antoine produced around 1200 reams of paper a year, some of which was shipped to Marseille and exported onwards throughout the world.

The Grasset family moved from the Grenoble area where they had had mills since the 1620s to Castres, about 70 km east of Toulouse.

History

Paper was made on this site at Salvages, on the right bank of the Agout river for approximately 340 years from the 1640s until the 1980s. 

Beginning in the 1600s as a water powered mill with wooden beaters making rag paper by hand, paper production ended in the 1980s when it was a large scale industrial mill producing cardboard and cigarette paper.

1646 - Isaac Donnadieu de Pélissier establishes a paper mill on the right bank of the Agout.

1668 - The mill is operated by Jean Benoît and his son-in-law Antoine Gasc,

1721 - Jean Court operators the mill followed by Jean Bel until his death in 1737.

1737 - The business is taken over by Pierre Bouquié and his brother Louis until Bankruptcy in 1744

1745 - Bought by Antoine Grasset and his son Jean.  

1780 - Jean Grasset takes over. Hollander beater installed.

1793 - French Revolution #2. Production suspended.  

1799 - Antoine Grasset, son of Jean, and his son construct a new mill and the installation of a continuous paper machine imported from England. The plant is the only one in France to be equipped with a machine of this type. 

1825 - Financial difficulties accumulate. Antoine Grasset creats the Company of Grasset paper mills. 

1840 - Due to financial difficulties, this company is dissolved. Equipment and mill sold to Anarchasis Cumenge who continues to produce continuous paper and cigarette paper. 

1847 - The entire factory was destroyed by fire.

1848 - The plant is restored and production of cigarette paper is restarted.

1854 - Hippolyte Caste takes management of the factory which employs more than 100 employees specialising in the manufacture of continuous paper. 

1914 - Bought by Antoine Amiel

1918 - Sold to Gabriel Adolphe and Adolphe Elie Meric.  

1958 - The factory is sold to an industrialist, Appamean and specialises in the manufacture of paper and cardboard packaging that will continue for 25 years.

1985 - Final closure 

Thus ends the papermaking activity of Salvages after an epic 340 years.

The Paper

Produced under the stewardship of Jean Grasset, this was made between 1780 and 1793 when production was suspended due to the second French Revolution.

This style of paper would have been used for a variety of purposes including printing, drawing, painting and for maps etc.  

This paper is interesting from a collectors point of view and also where an genuinely aged paper is required. 

Paper production did not start again until 1799 with the installation of a paper making machine.  

Watermarks

Sheet #1 - J Grasset Salvages

Sheet #2 - Fleur de Lis atop a staff

Size

370 x 245 mm, 14 1/2  x 9 1/2 inches

Condition

This paper is not in an "age related" condition with signs of age throughout.

Weight

Approximately 105 gsm

Surface

Laid (the laid lines are 1 inch apart)