organised as a corporation, and that it comprised three ranks of
artisans--the masters, the journeymen, and the apprentices. Besides, it
is clear that St. Eloi founded two distinct corporations of
goldsmiths--one for secular, the other for religious works, in order
that the objects sacred to worship should not be manufactured by the
same hands that executed those designed for profane uses or worldly
state. The seat of the former in Paris was first the Cité, near the very
abode of St. Eloi long known as the _maison au fèvre_, and surrounding
the monastery of St. Martial. Within the jurisdiction of that monastery
was the space comprised between the streets of La Barillerie, of La
Calandre, Aux Fèves, and of La Vieille Draperie, under the denomination
of “St. Eloi’s Enclosure.” A raging fire destroyed the entire quarter
inhabited by the goldsmiths, excepting the monastery; and the lay
goldsmiths went forth and established themselves as a colony, still
under the auspices of their patron saint, in the shadow of the Church of
St. Paul des Champs, which he had caused to be constructed on the right
bank of the Seine. The assemblage of forges and shops of these artisans
soon formed a sort of suburb, which was called _Clôture_, or _Culture
St. Eloi_. Subsequently some of the goldsmiths returned to the Cité; but
they remained on the Grand-Pont, and returned no more to the streets,
where the cobblers had established themselves. Moreover, the monastery
of St. Martial had become, under the administration of its first abbess,
St. Anne, a branch of the goldsmith’s school which the “Seigneur Eloi”
had established in 631 in the Abbey of Solignac, in the environs of
Limoges. That abbey, whose first abbot, Thillon or Théau--a pupil, or,
as the chronicle expresses it, a servant of St. Eloi--was also a skilful
goldsmith, preserved during several centuries the traditions of its
founder, and furnished not only models, but also skilful workmen, to all
the monastic ateliers of Christendom which exclusively manufactured for
the churches jewelled and enamelled plate.
[Illustration: Fig. 110.--Ewer in Enamel, of Limoges, by Pierre
Raymond.]
However, the goldsmiths of Paris engaged in secular works continued to
maintain themselves as a corporation; and their privileges, which they
ascribed to the special regard of Dagobert for St. Eloi, were
recognised, it is said, in 768 by a royal charter, and confirmed in 846
in a capitulary of Charles the Bald. These goldsmiths worked in gold and
silver only for kings and nobles, whom the strictness of the sumptuary
laws did not reach. The Dictionary of Jean de Garlande informs us that,
in the eleventh century, there were in Paris four classes of workmen in
the goldsmith’s trade--those who coined money (_nummularii_), the
clasp-makers (_firmacularii_), the manufacturers of drinking-goblets
(_cipharii_), and the goldsmiths, properly so called (_aurifabri_). The
ateliers and the shop-windows of these last were on the Pont-au-Change
(Fig. 111), in competition with the money-changers, who for the most
part were Lombards or Italians. From that epoch a rivalry commenced
between these two trade guilds, which only ceased on the complete
downfall of the money-changers.
[Illustration: Fig. 111.--Interior of the Atelier of Etienne Delaulne, a
celebrated goldsmith of Paris, in the Sixteenth Century. Designed and
engraved by himself.]
When Etienne Boileau, Provost of Paris in the reign of Louis IX., wrote
in obedience to the legislative designs of the king, his famous “Livre
des Métiers,” to establish the existence of guilds on permanent
foundations, he had scarcely more to do than to transcribe the statutes
of the goldsmiths almost the same as those instituted by St. Eloi, with
the modifications consequent on the new order of things. By the terms of
the ordinances drawn up by Louis, the goldsmiths of Paris were exempt
from the watch, and from all other feudal services; they elected, every
three years, two or three _anciens_ (seniors) “for the protection of
the trade,” and these _anciens_ exercised permanent vigilance over the
works of their colleagues, and over the quality of the gold and silver
material used by them. An apprentice was not admitted as a master until
after ten years’ apprenticeship; and no master could have more than one
apprentice, in addition to those belonging to his own family. The
corporation, so far as concerned the fraternity with respect to works
for charitable and devotional purposes, had a seal (Fig. 116) which
placed it under the patronage of St. Eloi; but, with regard to its
industrial association, it imprinted on manufactured articles a _seing_,
or stamp, which guaranteed the value of the metal. The corporation soon
obtained, from Philip of Valois, a coat-of-arms, which conferred on it a
sort of professional nobility; and acquired, owing to the distinguished
protection extended to it by that king, a position which nevertheless it
did not succeed in preserving in the united constitution of the six
mercantile bodies; for, although it laid claim to the first rank on
account of its antiquity, it was forced, notwithstanding the undeniable
superiority of its works, to be contented with the second, and even to
descend to the third rank.
[Illustration: Fig. 112.--Stamp of Lyons.]
[Illustration: Fig. 113.--Stamp of Chartres.]
[Illustration: Fig. 114.--Stamp of Melun.]
[Illustration: Fig. 116.--Ancient Corporate Seal of the Goldsmiths of
Paris.]
[Illustration: Fig. 115.--Stamp of Orléans.]
The goldsmiths, at the time of the compilation of the code of
professions by Etienne Boileau, were already separated, voluntarily or
otherwise, from several trades which had long appeared in their train;
the _cristalliers_, or lapidaries; the gold and silver beaters; the
embroiderers in _orfroi_ (gold-fringe); the _patenôtriers_
(bead-stringers) in precious stones lived under their own regulations;
the _monétaires_ (bullion-dealers) remained under the control of the
king and his mint; the _hanapiers_ (drinking-cup makers), the
_fermailleurs_ (makers of clasps), the pewterers, boxmakers, inferior
artisans and others who worked in common metals, had no longer any
connection with the goldsmiths of Paris. But in the provinces, in towns
where the masters of a trade were insufficient to constitute a community
or fraternity having its chiefs and its own administration, it was
indispensable to reunite under the same banner the trades between which
there was the most agreement, or rather the least contrariety. Thus, in
certain localities in France and the Low Countries, the goldsmiths,
proud as they might be of the nobility of their origin, sometimes found
themselves united as equals with the
[Illustration: Fig. 117.--Arms of the Corporation of Goldsmiths of
Paris, with this device: “Vases Sacrés et Couronnes, voilà notre
Œuvre.”]
pewterers, the mercers, the braziers, and even the grocers; and thus it
came to pass that they combined on their banners of fleurs-de-lis the
proper arms of each of these several trades. Thus, for instance, we see
the banner of the goldsmiths of Castellane (Fig. 118) united with the
retail mercers and tailors--it shows a pair of scissors, scales, and an
ell measure; at Chauny (Fig. 119), a ladder, a hammer, and a vase,
indicate that the goldsmiths had for compeers the pewterers and the
slaters; at Guise (Fig. 120), the association of farriers, coppersmiths,
and locksmiths, is allied with the goldsmiths by a horse-shoe, a mallet,
and a key; the brewers of Harfleur (Fig. 121) quartered in their arms
four barrels between the bars of the cross _gules_ charged with a goblet
of gold, which was the emblem of their associates the goldsmiths; at
Maringues (Fig. 122), the gold cup on a field _gules_ surmounts the
grocer’s candles.
These banners were displayed only on great public ceremonies, in solemn
processions, receptions, marriages, the obsequies of kings, queens,
princes, and princesses. Exempted from military service, the goldsmiths,
unlike other trade corporations, had not the opportunity of
distinguishing themselves in the militia of the communes. They,
nevertheless, occupied the first place in the state processions of
trades, and frequently filled posts of honour. Thus in Paris they had
the custody of the gold and silver plate when the good city entertained
some illustrious guest at a banquet; they carried the canopy above the
head of the king on his joyful accession; or, crowned with roses, walked
bearing on their shoulders the venerated shrine of St. Geneviève (Fig.
123).
[Illustration: Fig. 118.]
[Illustration: Fig. 119.]
[Illustration: Fig. 120.]
[Illustration: Fig. 121.]
[Illustration: Fig. 122.]
In the wealthy cities of Belgium, where the corporations were queens
(_reines_), the goldsmiths, by virtue of their privileges, dictated the
law and swayed the people. No doubt in France they were far from
enjoying the same political influence; nevertheless, one of them was
that provost of merchants, Etienne Marcel, who, from 1356 to 1358,
played so bold a part during the regency of the Dauphin Charles. But it
was especially in periods of peace and prosperity that the goldsmith’s
art in Paris shone in all its splendour; then its banners incessantly
waved in the breeze for the festivals and processions of its numerous
and wealthy brotherhoods to the churches of Notre-Dame, St. Martial, St.
Paul, and St. Denis of Montmartre.
[Illustration: Fig. 123.--The Corporation of the Goldsmiths of Paris
carrying the Shrine of St. Geneviève. (From an engraving of the
Seventeenth Century.)]
In 1337 the number of the wardens of the goldsmith’s guild in Paris had
increased from three to six. They had their names engraved and their
marks stamped on tablets of copper, which were preserved as archives in
the town-hall. Every French goldsmith, admitted a master after the
production of his principal work, left the impression of his sign
manual, or private mark, on similar tablets of copper deposited in the
office of the guild; while the stamp of the community itself was
required to be engraved at the mint to authorise its being used. Every
corporation thus had its mark, which the wardens set on the articles
after having assayed and weighed the metal. These marks, at least in the
later centuries, represented in general the special arms or emblems of
the cities; for Lyons, it is a lion; for Melun, an eel; for Chartres, a
partridge; for Orleans, the head of Joan of Arc, &c. (Figs. 112 to 115).
[Illustration: Fig. 124.--Gold Cross, chased. (A French Work of the
Seventeenth Century.)]
The goldsmiths of France manifested, and with reason, a jealousy of
their privileges, it being more indispensable for them than for any
other artisans to inspire that confidence without which the trade would
have been lost; for their works were required to bear as authentic and
legal a value as that of money. Therefore, it may be understood that
they exercised keen vigilance over all gold or silver objects which were
in any way under their warranty: hence the frequent visits of the sworn
masters to the ateliers and shops of the goldsmiths; hence the perpetual
lawsuits against all instances of negligence or fraud; hence those
quarrels with other trades which arrogated to themselves the right of
working in precious metals without having qualified for it. Confiscation
of goods, the whip, the pillory, were penalties inflicted on goldsmiths
in contraband trade who altered the standard, concealed copper beneath
the gold, or substituted false for precious stones.
It, indeed, seems remarkable that while for the most part other trades
were subject to the control of the goldsmiths, the latter were
responsible only to themselves for the aggressions which they constantly
committed within the domain of rival industries. Whenever the object to
be manufactured was of gold, it belonged to the goldsmith’s trade. The
goldsmith made, by turns, spurs as the spur-maker; armour and arms, as
the armourer; girdles and clasps, as the belt-maker and the clasp-maker.
However, there is reason to believe that in the fabrication of these
various objects, the goldsmith had recourse to the assistance of special
artisans, who could scarcely fail to derive all possible advantage from
such fortuitous association. Thus, when the gold-wrought sword which
Dunois carried when Charles VII. entered Lyons in 1449, mounted in
diamonds and rubies, and valued at more than fifteen thousand crowns,
was to be made, the work of the goldsmiths probably consisted only of
the fashioning and chasing the hilt, while the sword-cutler had to forge
and temper the blade. In the same manner, when it was required to work a
jewelled robe, such as Marie de Medicis wore at the baptism of her son
in 1606, the robe being covered with thirty-two thousand precious stones
and three thousand diamonds, the goldsmith had only to mount the stones
and furnish the design for fixing them on the gold or silk tissue.
[Illustration: Fig. 125.--Pendant, adorned with Diamonds and Precious
Stones. (Seventeenth Century.)]
Long before Benvenuto and other skilful Italian goldsmiths were summoned
by Francis I. to his court, the French goldsmiths had proved that they
needed only a little encouragement to range themselves on a level with
foreign artists. But that patronage having failed them, they left the
country and established themselves elsewhere; thus at the court of
Flanders, Antoine of Bordeaux, Margerie of Avignon, and Jean of Rouen,
distinguished themselves. It is true that in the reign of Louis XII.,
whose exchequer had been exhausted in the Italian expeditions, gold and
silver had become so scarce in France, that the king was obliged to
prohibit the manufacture of all sorts of large plate (_grosserie_). But
the discovery of America having brought with it an abundance of the
precious metals, Louis XII. recalled his ordinance in 1510; and
thenceforth the corporations of goldsmiths were seen to increase and
prosper, as luxuriousness, diffused by the example of the great,
descended to the lower ranks of society. Silver plate soon displaced
that of tin; and before long personal display had attained such a
height, “that the wife of a merchant wore on her person more jewels than
were seen on the image of the Virgin.” The number of the goldsmiths then
became so great that in the city of Rouen alone there were in 1563 _two
hundred and sixty-five_ masters having the right of stamp!
[Illustration: Figs. 126 to 131.--Chains.]
[Illustration: Figs. 132 to 136.--Rings.]
To sum up this chapter. Until the middle of the fourteenth century it is
the religious art which prevails; the goldsmiths are engaged only in
executing shrines, reliquaries, and church ornaments. At the end of that
century, and during the one following, they manufactured gold and
silver
[Illustration: Figs. 137 to 141.--Seals.]
plate, enriching with their works the treasuries of kings and nobles,
and imparting brilliant display to the adornment of dress. In the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the goldsmiths applied themselves
more to chasing, enamelling, and inlay-work. Everywhere are to be seen
marvellous trinkets--necklaces, rings, buckles, chains, seals (Figs. 124
to 142). The weight of metal is no longer the principal merit; the skill
of the workman is especially appreciated, and the goldsmith executes in
gold, in silver, and in precious stones, the beautiful productions of
painters and engravers. Nevertheless, the demand for delicate objects
had the disadvantage of requiring much solder and alloy, which
deteriorated the standard of metal. Then a desperate struggle commenced
between the goldsmiths and the mint--a struggle which was prosecuted
through a maze of legal proceedings, petitions, and ordinances, until
the middle of the reign of Louis XV. At the same time the Italian and
German goldsmiths making an irruption into France and introducing
materials of a low standard, the old professional integrity became
suspected and was soon disregarded. At the end of the sixteenth century
very little plate was ornamented: there is a return to massive plate,
the weight and standard of which could be easily verified. Gold is
scarcely any longer employed, except for jewels; and silver in a
thousand forms creeps into the manufacture of furniture. After
_cabinets_, covered and ornamented with carving in silver, came the
articles of silver furniture invented by Claude Ballin. But the mass of
precious metal withdrawn from circulation was soon returned to it, and
the fashion passed away. The goldsmiths found themselves reduced to
manufacture only objects of small size; and for the most part they
limited themselves to works of jewellery, which subjected them to less
annoyance from the mint. Besides, the art of the lapidary had almost
changed its character, as well as the trade in precious stones. Pierre
de Montarsy, jeweller to the king, effected a kind of revolution in his
art, which the travels of Chardin, of Bernier, and of Tavernier, in the
East had, so to say, enlarged. The cutting and mounting of precious
stones has not since been excelled. It may be said that Montarsy was the
first jeweller, as Ballin was the last goldsmith.
[Illustration: Fig. 142.--Chased and Enamelled Brooch, embellished with
Pearls and Diamonds. (Seventeenth Century.)]
HOROLOGY.
Modes of measuring Time among the Ancients.--The Gnomon.--The
Water-Clock.--The Hour-Glass.--The Water-Clock, improved by the
Persians and by the Italians.--Gerbert invents the Escapement and
the moving Weights.--The Striking-bell.--Maistre Jehan des
Orloges.--Jacquemart of Dijon.--The first Clock in Paris.--Earliest
portable Timepiece.--Invention of the spiral Spring.--First
appearance of Watches.--The Watches, or “Eggs,” of
Nuremberg.--Invention of the Fusee.--Corporation of
Clockmakers.--Noted Clocks at Jena, Strasburg, Lyons,
&c.--Charles-Quint and Jannellus.--The Pendulum.
Among the ancients there were three instruments for measuring time--the
_gnomon_, or sun-dial, which is only, as we know, a table whereon lines
are so arranged as successively to meet the shadow cast by a gnomon,[20]
thus indicating the hour of the day according to the height or
inclination of the sun; the water-clock (_clepsydra_), which had for its
principle the measured percolation of a certain quantity of water; and
the hour-glass, wherein the liquid is exchanged for sand. It would be
difficult to determine which of these three chronometric modes can lay
claim to priority. There is this to be said that, according to the
Bible, in the eighth century before Christ, Ahaz, King of Judah, caused
a sun-dial to be constructed at Jerusalem; again, Herodotus says
Anaximander introduced the sun-dial into Greece, whence it passed on to
the other parts of the then civilised world; and that, in the year 293
before our era, the celebrated Papirius Cursor, to the astonishment of
his fellow-citizens, had a sun-dial traced near the temple of Jupiter
Quirinus.
According to the description given by Athena (Athenæus?), the
water-clock was formed of an earthenware or metal vessel filled with
water, and then suspended over a reservoir whereon lines were marked
indicating the hours, as the water which escaped drop by drop from the
upper vessel came to the level. We find this instrument employed by most
ancient nations, and in many countries it remained in use until the
tenth century of the Christian era.
[Illustration: Fig. 143.--The Clockmaker. Designed and Engraved by J.
Amman.]
In one of his dialogues Plato declares that the philosophers are far
more fortunate than the orators--“these being the slaves of a miserable
water-clock; whereas the others are at liberty to make their discourse
as long as they please.” To explain this passage, we must remember that
it was the practice in the Athenian courts of justice, as subsequently
in those of Rome, to measure the time allowed to the advocates for
pleading by means of a water-clock. Three equal portions of water were
put into it--one for the prosecutor, one for the defendant, and the
third for the judge. A man was charged with the special duty of giving
timely notice to each of the three speakers that his portion was nearly
run out. If, on some unusual occasion, the time for one or other of the
parties was doubled, it was called “adding water-clock to water-clock;”
and when witnesses were giving evidence, or the text of some law was
being read out, the percolation of the water was stopped: this was
called _aquam sustinere_ (to retain the water).
The hour-glass, which is still in use to a considerable extent for
measuring short intervals of time, had great analogy with the
water-clock, but was never susceptible of such regularity. In fact, at
different periods important improvements were applied to the
water-clock. Vitruvius tells us that, about one hundred years before our
era, Ctesibius, a mechanician of Alexandria, added several cogged-wheels
to the water-clock, one of which moved a hand, showing the hour on a
dial. This must have been, so far as historical documents admit of
proof, the first step towards purely mechanical horology.
In order, then, to find an authentic date in the history of horology, we
must go to the eighth century, when water-clocks, still further
improved, were either made or imported into France; among others, one
which Pope Paul I. sent to Pepin le Bref. We must, however, believe that
these instruments can have attracted but little attention, or that they
were speedily forgotten; for, one hundred years later, there appeared a
water-clock at the court of Charlemagne, a present from the famous
caliph Aroun-al-Raschid, regarded, indeed almost celebrated, as a
notable event. Of this Eginhard has left us an elaborate description. It
was, he says, in brass, damaskeened with gold, and marked the hours on a
dial. At the end of each hour an equal number of small iron balls fell
on a bell, and made it sound as many times as the hour indicated by the
needle. Twelve windows immediately opened, out of which were seen to
proceed the same number of horsemen armed _cap-à-pie_, who, after
performing divers evolutions, withdrew into the interior of the
mechanism, and then the windows closed.
Shortly afterwards Pacificus, Archbishop of Verona, constructed one far
superior to all that had preceded it; for, besides giving the hours, it
indicated the date of the month, the days of the week, the phases of the
moon, &c. But still it was only an improved water-clock. Before horology
could really assume an historical date, it was necessary that for motive
power weights should be substituted for water, and that the escapement
should be invented; yet it was only in the beginning of the tenth
century that these important discoveries were made.
“In the reign of Hugh Capet,” says M. Dubois, “there lived in France a
man of great talent and reputation named Gerbert. He was born in the
mountains of Auvergne, and had passed his childhood in tending flocks
near Aurillac. One day some monks of the order of St. Benedict met him
in the fields: they conversed with him, and finding him precociously
intelligent, took him into their convent of St. Gérauld. There Gerbert
soon acquired a taste for monastic life. Eager for knowledge, and
devoting all his spare moments to study, he became the most learned of
the community. After he had taken vows, a desire to add to his
scientific attainments led him to set out for Spain. During several
years he assiduously frequented the universities of the Iberian
peninsula. He soon found himself too learned for Spain; for, in spite of
his truly sincere piety, ignorant fanatics accused him of sorcery. As
that accusation might have involved him in deplorable consequences, he
preferred not to await the result; and hastily quitting the town of
Salamanca, which was his ordinary residence, he came to Paris, where he
very soon made himself powerful friends and protectors. At length, after
having successively been monk, superior of the convent of Bobbio, in
Italy, Archbishop of Rheims, tutor to Robert I., King of France, and to
Otho III., Emperor of Germany, who appointed him to the see of Ravenna,
Gerbert rose to the pontifical throne under the name of Sylvester II.:
he died in 1003. This great man did honour to his country and to his
age. He was acquainted with nearly all the dead and living languages; he
was a mechanician, astronomer, physician, geometrician, algebraist, &c.
He introduced the Arab numerals into France. In the seclusion of his
monastic cell, as in his archiepiscopal palace, his favourite relaxation
was the study of mechanics. He was skilled in making sun-dials,
water-clocks, hour-glasses, and hydraulic organs. It was he who first
applied weight as a motive power to horology; and, in all probability,
he is the inventor of that admirable mechanism called escapement--the
most beautiful, as well as the most essential, of all the inventions
which have been made in horology.”