ANTIQUE: FULL SHEETS Jean Grasset 'Salvages' 1780 to 1793
Genuine 18th century handmade paper.
Produced under the stewardship of Jean Grasset, this was handmade between 1780 and 1793 in Salvages, France, just before the second revolution.
This style of paper would have been used for a variety of purposes including printing and drawing. The sizing has either failed or it wasn't sized at all originally so we couldn't recommend using wet media on it (watercolour etc), but oil and acrylic based inks, pencils, chalks etc will be fine.
This paper is full of character. It doesn't hide its history very well, each sheet has telltale signs of impurities in the water and fibres used to make it, but for age compatible art, in it's own way. this is a wonderful paper.
Unlike the other Grasset listing (half sheets), this listing is for full, complete sheets of this paper. Each half of the paper is watermarked, although in general these are not particularly well defined.
This paper is interesting from a collectors point of view and also where an genuinely aged paper is required.
Watermarks: J Grasset Salvages & Fleur de Lis atop a staff
Size: 19¼ x 14½ inches, 490 x 372 mm
Condition: This paper is in an "age related" condition with signs of age (some foxing, sewing holes etc) throughout. These sheets have been removed from an 18th century binding, hence the dirty central gutter and sewing marks.
Weight: Approximately 105 gsm
Surface: Laid (the laid lines are 1 inch apart)
HISTORY
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.