Art and industry: A Contradictory union: Authors, rights and copyrights during the consulat

Journal of Design History

Volumn 13, Issue 1, 2000, Pages 1-21

  Scott, Katie ^a  

^a University of London ^*

Author keywords

Copyright; France; Industrial design; Patent law; Prints; Wallpaper

Indexed keywords

EID: 0006218802     PISSN: 09524649     EISSN: 17417279     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1093/jdh/13.1.1     Document Type: Review

References (112)

1. It was widely believed that the success of French fashions rested on this superiority of taste (see, for example, Mercure de France, March 1746, pp. 75-6)
2. one that Jean-Jacques Bachelier, as Director of the Ecole Gratuit de Dessin, sought continually to ameliorate through the inculcation of the principles of classical art (see Mercure de France, April 1774, pp. 130-1).
3. See also the later-winning essay by P. T. Dechazelle in answer to the question 'Quelle est l'influence de la peinture sur les arts d'industrie commerciale?' (1804). In the case of wallpaper, Dechazelle noted that 'L'influence de la peinture qui s'exerce dans toute son étendue sur ce genre d'industrie communique à ses produits un attrait vraiment magique; cet art, comme un vrai Protée se metamorphose sans cesse, et plus il se renouvelle, plus la fantaisie s'y attache' (Discours qui a obtenu la mention honorable, p. 31).
4. For a broad analysis of the debate, see D. Irwin, 'Art versus design: the debate 1760-1860', Journal of Design History, vol. 4, no. 4, 1991, pp. 219-32.
5. For the early history of copyright see M. Grivel, Le Commerce de l'estampe à Paris au XVIIe siècle, Geneva, 1986, pp. 104-16.
6. All the information concerning the trial is gleaned from the trial briefs published in A. Falconnet, Le Barreau français, partie moderne, contenant les plaidoyers, mémoires et consultations des plus célèbres avocats, 2 vols., Paris 1806-8, vol. ii, pp. 420-507. I am extremely thankful to Michael Sonenscher for generously bringing this extraordinary material to my attention.
7. According to the Journal de Paris, the case was fought 'avec beaucoup de talens' by Guégnet for Bance and Lépidor for Simon. See Journal de Paris, 15 Nivose, An XI (5 January 1803), p. 659.
8. Augustin-Charles Renouard, an early historian of French copyright, similarly judged Lépidor's handling of Simon's case a 'spirituelle plaidoirie'. See Traité des droits d'auteurs dans la littérature, les sciences et les beaux-arts, 2 vols., Paris, 1838, vol. ii, p. 85.
9. That, for example, of the engravers and etchers Charles-Etienne Gaucher, Louis-Joseph Masquellier and Jean-Michel Moreau le jeune, and of Eugène Balthasar Cresent Bernard de Moussinières of the wallpaper firm Jacquemart et Bénard, and François Robert of the firm Arthur et Robert.
10. See Journal de Paris, 1 Germinal, An X (22 March 1802), p. 1091;
11. 2 Messidor, An X (21 June 1802), p. 1689;
12. and 15 Nivose, An XI (5 January 1803), p. 659.
13. See Journal des débats (1802) in Deloynes, vol. xxviii, no. 778. The review is attributed to Pierre Chaussard.
14. See Falconnet, op. cit., vol. ii, pp. 420-507.
15. For the arrêt du conseil du 26 mai 1660, see Bib.Nat. Ms. fr. 22172 (125); Grivel, op cit., pp. 83-99, esp. 96-9.
16. For the most recent discussion of print privilège, see P. Fuhring, 'The print privilege in eighteenth-century France', Print Quarterly, Part I, vol. ii, no. 3, September 1985, pp. 174-93; Part II, vol. iii, no. 1, pp. 19-33.
17. See C. Hesse, 'Enlightenment epistemology and the laws of authorship in revolutionary France, 1777-1793', Representations, vol. xxx, Spring 1990, p. 111.
18. See Fuhring, op. cit., p. 177;
19. K. Scott, 'Authorship, the Académie, and the market in early modern France', Oxford Art Journal, vol. xxi, no. 1, 1998, pp. 29-41, esp. p. 30.
20. On the 'privileged society' of the ancien régime, see C. B. A. Behrens, The Ancien Régime, London, 1967, pp. 46-62.
21. The privilèges were registered in ledgers kept by the Paris book guild. See Fuhring, op. cit., p. 179.
22. See Hesse, op. cit.; Scott, op. cit., pp. 33-4.
23. These figures have been taken from Fuhring, op. cit., p. 178.
24. For the full text of the arrêt, see C. M. Saugrain, Code de la librairie et imprimerie de Paris, Paris 1744, pp. 462-4.
25. See also Fuhring, op. cit., pp. 187-9;
26. W. McAllistair Johnson, 'Documents', Nouvelles de l'Estampe, 1979, pp. 10-11;
27. Scott, op. cit., pp. 29-41.
28. Déclaration du roi, concernant les arts de peinture et sculpture, 15 March 1777;
29. registered by the Parlement, 2 September 1777. Reprinted in L. Aucoc, L'Institut de France: Lois, statuts et règlements concernant les anciennes académies et l'Institut de 1635 à 1889, Paris, 1889, pp. cxlvii-cliii.
30. In the Arrêt du conseil, 28 June 1714, the king cited as one of the reasons for extending such privileges to the Académie the need to inform the public and posterity of the progress made in the arts and encourage emulation by the dissemination of accurate and fine reproductions of the work of academicians. See Saugrain, op. cit., p. 463.
31. For an exception, see P. Casselle, 'Le Commerce des estampes à Paris dans la seconde moitié du dix-huitième siècle', thèse de l'Ecole de Chartes, 1976, pp. 28-9;
32. Scott, op. cit., pp. 37-8.
33. The Académie demanded no fees for the privilège and merely required the depositing of two copies of the work for which protection was sought.
34. As a result of their complaints, the king issued an arrêt du conseil on 21 June 1676 which forthwith protected the sculptors of the Académie from copyists on pain of 1000 livres fine. See Brillon, Dictionnaire des arrêts, Paris, 1727, ad. voc. 'sculpteurs';
35. Scott, op. cit., pp. 34-5.
36. For the bronze-founders, see the sentence de police of 11 July 1702, pubUshed in Articles, statuts, ordonnances ... accordez ... aux jures et gardes de la communauté des fondeurs ... Paris, 1743, p. 90.
37. Cited in A. Vaunois, Les Dessins et modèles de fabriques. Doctrines, législation, jurisprudence, Paris, 1898, p. 6.
38. From the Règlements of 21 April 1766. See Vaunois, op. cit., p. 7.
39. See Mémoire pour les directeurs, corps et communautés de l'Académie de Saint-Luc ... Contre Simon Bezançon, André Tramblin et consors, Paris, n.d. [1738], pp. 7-8. (A.N. AD VIII 1).
40. Huquier, Projet en forme de mémoire pour l'assurance et le renouvellement des privilèges accordé à l'art de la gravure en taille-douce, et pour établissement d'une commission à l'effet d'empêcher aucune copie ou contrefaction des ouvrages de gravure en taille-douce quelconque dans toute l'étendue du royaume, January 1764 (Bib. Nat. Ms fr. 22120, no. 60).
41. Charles-Nicolas Cochin, Projet d'arrêt du conseil pour les graveurs qui m'a été remis par M. Cochin, June 1764 (Bib. Nat. Ms. Fr 22120, no. 68). It was proposed, interestingly enough, that the privilege be extended to cover architectural designs by members of the Académie royale d'architecture.
42. The criticism was provoked by the over-zealous seizure by the syndics of the Booksellers' Company of a consignment of 150 copies of L'Accouchée holondaise on the grounds that Basan had failed to deposit the requisite number of copies. See P. Casselle, 'Pierre-François Basan, marchand d'estampes à Paris (1723-1797)', Paris et l'Ile de France. Mémoires, vol. xxxiii, 1982, pp. 136-7.
43. P.-F. Basan, Exposé du sieur Basan et autres, ses confrères graveurs en taille-douce à Paris contre la communauté des libraires, September 1757 (Bib. Nat Ms fr. 22076, no. 73)
44. published in its entirety by McAllistair Johnson, op. cit., pp. 10-11.
45. See also Fuhring, op. cit., p. 178.
46. See Casselle, op. cit., p. 30.
47. See P.-F. Basan, Mémoire sur la chambre syndicale de Paris, relativement à la gravure et au commerce d'estampes, c.1785, published with his Adresse à l'Assemblée Nationale, Paris, 1791, pp. 21-7.
48. For a full discussion of me critique of the corporate system prior to and during Turgot's dissolution of the guilds, see Steven Kaplan, 'Social classification and representation in the corporate world of eighteenth-century France: Turgot's "carnival"', in S. L. Kaplan & C. J. Koepp (eds.), Work in France: Representation, Meaning, Organisation and Practice, London, 1986, pp. 176-228.
49. For what follows, see Hesse, op. cit., pp. 114-15.
50. On the abolition of the guilds, see L. Vardi, 'The abolition of the guilds during the French Revolution', French Historical Studies, vol. xv, no. 4,1988, pp. 704-17.
51. On the demise of the Académie, see E. Pommier, L'Art de la liberté. Doctrines et débats de la révolution française, Paris, 1991.
52. George Chabaud, La Protection légale des dessins et modèles, Paris, 1913, p. 47.
53. For a concise overview of the transformations of the art market in the Revolution, see A. Becq, 'Artistes et marché', in La Carmagnole des muses: l'homme de lettres et l'artiste dans la révolution, Paris, 1988, pp. 81-95.
54. On the demise of the book guild, see C. Hesse, Publishing and Cultural Politics in Revolutionary Paris 1789-1810, Berkeley, Los Angeles and Oxford, 1991, Ch. 2.
55. P.-F. Basan, Adresse à l'Assemblée Nationale, par les graveurs et propriétaires de planches gravées; suivie d'un mémoire qui développe les principes sur lesquels est fondée leur demande; D'un projet de decrêt conforme à ces mêmes principes; d'un mémoire particulier sur la Chambre Syndicale, en ce qui concerne la gravure; appuyé de pièces justificatives, Paris, 1791, pp. 5-6. (Translations throughout the essay are the author's unless otherwise indicated.)
56. See Hesse, op. cit., esp. pp. 18-20.
57. Basan, Adresse, op. cit., p. 9.
58. For the beginning of the eighteenth century, see, for example, B. Picart, Les Impostures innocentes, Amsterdam, 1734, pp. 1-6.
59. For the end, see, for instance, C.-E. Gaucher, Lettre à M. Quatremère de Quincy sur la gravure, Paris. n.d.
60. Mémoire pour les sieurs Esnauts et Rapilly, marchands d'estampes et proprétaires de la galérie des modes françoises, demandeurs, contre le sieur Basset, graveur et marchand mercier, defendeur, Paris, 1779, p. 11
61. See Basan, Adresse, op. cit., pp. 12-13.
62. On changing meanings of property, see W. Sewell, Work and Revolution in France: The Language of Labour from the Old Regime to 1848, Cambridge, 1980, pp. 114-42.
63. For a more recent discussion that does not wholly support the argument made here, see T. E. Kaiser, 'Property, sovereignty, the Declaration of the Rights of Man, and the tradition of French jurisprudence', in D. Van Kley (ed.), The French Idea of Freedom: The Old Regime and the Declaration of the Rights of Man, Stanford, 1994, pp. 300-39.
64. Basan, Adresse, op. cit., pp. 12-13.
65. On the history of the assignats, see E. N. White, 'The French revolution and the politics of government in France, 1770-1815', Journal of Economic History, vol. lv, no. 2, June 1995, pp. 227-55, esp. 235-47;
66. E. S. Brezis & F. H. Crouzet, 'The role of assignats during the French revolution: an evil or a Rescuer?', Journal of European Economic History, vol. xxiv, no. 1, Spring 1995, pp. 7-40.
67. See Basan, Adresse, op. cit., p. 12.
68. It is perhaps worth noting that during the ancien régime cases of contrefaçon were most often brought where forged lottery tickets and gaming cards were at issue. See A.N. Y9517-9522; Y9516.
69. See the statutes laid out by Basan, Adresse, op. cit., pp. 17-20.
70. The patente was introduced at the moment that duties on certain goods (aides) were revoked and the guilds simultaneously disbanded. The Assemblée Nationale thus had to (re)define production without reference to corporate bodies as they sought to establish who was liable to the new tax. On the response of artists to the prospect of paying the patente, see E. Pommier, 'De l'art libéral à l'art de la liberté: le débat sur la patente des artistes sous la révolution et ses antécédents dans l'ancienne théorie de l'art', Bulletin de la société de l'histoire de l'art français, 1992, pp. 148-67.
71. Décret de la Convention Nationale du 19 Juillet 1793, l'An Second de la République, relatif aux droits de propriété des auteurs d'écrits en tout genre, des compositeurs de musique, des peintres et dessinateurs, A.N. AD/VIII/16.
72. The fine was worked out on the basis that Simon should pay an indemnity of 6 fr. for each print of Bance's first edition, an edition that ran to 500 copies of each pendant. See Falconnet, op. cit., p. 483.
73. For information about the range of prints published by Bance during the Revolution, see J. Renouvier, Histoire de l'art pendant la révolution considéré principalement dans les estampes, 2 vols., Paris, 1863, vol. i, pp. 76, 197, 237; vol. ii, pp. 402, 404, 440. They included prints after André Vincent, Fragonard fils and Pierre Paul Prudhon.
74. Bance and Henry Gérard offer slightly different accounts of the circumstances of Bance's acquisition of Gérard's paintings. In the first memorandum, Bance merely reports having bought them (see Falconnet, op. cit., p. 423).
75. The inflated trade in print proofs was a matter of considerable anxiety for both producers and consumers. See, for example, the letter published in the Mercure de France in response to the publication of Flipart's print after Jean-Baptiste Greuze's Gâteau des Rois, December 1777, pp. 177-8.
76. See also the methods used by one print-maker, David, to stem the tide of proofs in the case of his etching of the Marchand d'orvietan after Karel Dujardin. Mercure de France, April 1777, p. 186.
77. Falconnet, op. cit., p. 422.
78. On Joseph Dufour, see H. Clouzot & C. Follot, Histoire du papier peint en France, Paris, 1935, p. 199;
79. H. Clouzot, Les Chefs-d'oeuvre du papier peint. Tableaux-tentures de Dufour et Leroy, Paris, n.d., introduction (unpaginated).
80. See Falconnet, op. cit., p. 480.
81. See J.-P. Hirsch, 'Revolutionary France, cradle of free enterprise', American Historical Review, vol. xciv, 1989, pp. 1281-9.
82. On the interventionist and regulatory ministry of Chaptal, see J. Horn & M. Jacob, 'Jean-Antoine Chaptal and the cultural roots of French industrialization', Technology and Culture, vol. xxxix, 1998, pp. 671-98, though the stress here is exclusively on the relationship between industry and science.
83. 'Fair-use' was not a term that was coined until the twentieth century in matters of copyright but it does, nevertheless, describe a nineteenth-century policy towards the industrial arts. On fair-use this century, see M. Buskirk's excellent, 'Commodification as censor: copyrights and fair-use', October, vol. lxi, 1992, pp. 83-109.
84. See Falconnet, op cit., p. 424.
85. For an account of the affair, see Journal du Palais, no. 75, 10 Germinal, An X, pp. 19-20.
86. See Falconnet, op. cit., p. 452.
87. Interestingly, Bance contrasts the different ways in which time was employed in copying and counterfeiting. He notes that copying for study and improvement involves an investment of time, while copying to counterfeit is motivated by an economy of time. By implication he also contrasts the private sphere of use values and the public domain of commercial exchange. In the same context of anxiety over copying and the contravention of privileges to which it could give rise, Huquier had earlier argued that students should be dissuaded from copying master works in extenso and limit themselves to the copying parts. See Huquier, op. cit., fol. 197v.
88. See Falconnet, op. cit., p. 424.
89. The same point had been made by Huquier in the 1760s: 'le nombre de connoisseurs ne faisant pas la plus grande partie du public, il est évident qu'on preferera sans peine une Estampe à bon marché quoique beaucoup moins parfaite au même sujet, fait avec beaucoup plus d'art et d'esprit par ce que le prix devra naturellement être plus considérable.' Huquier, op. cit., fol. 196v.
90. Such arguments were not infrequently advanced in copyright disputes during the ancien régime. See, for example, Réponse pour le sieur Basset, graveur et marchant-mercier. Contre les sieurs Esnauts et Rapilly, marchands étaleurs d'estampes, Paris, 1779, p. 11.
91. Bance's response is predictably dismissive However, he notes, interestingly enough, that the background of the dessus de porte was changed in accordance with the demands of and taste for wallpaper. See Falconnet, op. cit., p. 430.
92. For Jean-Baptiste Reveillon's estimate of the cost of hiring designers whom he referred to as 'plutôt ... mes collaborateurs que mes gagistes', see Exposé justificatif pour le sieur Reveillon, entrepreneur de la manufacture royale des papiers-peints, faubourg Saint-Antoine, Paris, 1789, pp. 15-16.
93. See Falconnet, op. cit., fn. 1, p. 490.
94. For Basset, see M. Preaud, P. Casselle, M. Grivel & C. Le Bitouze, Dictionnaire des éditeurs d'estampes à Paris sous l'ancien régime, Paris, 1987, pp. 45-6.
95. See Falconnet, op. cit., pp. 456-7.
96. Bance replied: 'La gravure en taille-douce n'est pas simplement destinée à réproduire les chefs-d'oeuvre de la peinture, pour les transmettre à la postérité. Elle a une autre destination plus populaire, s'il est permis de le dire; elle s'applique à la décoration intérieure des appartements'. Ibid., p. 487.
97. On the 11 Brumaire, Year VIII, for example, Simon deposited a sample arabesque paper. See Bibliothèque Nationale, Li 19.
98. Etat des dépôts faits au département des estampes et planches gravées de la Bibliothèque Nationale, depuis le 1er Thennidor An III (19 July 1795), Ye 78a. See the entries for the following dates: 28 Thermidor, 14 Fructidor, 29 Fructidor, An III; 5 Messidor, 11 Thermidor, 29 Fructidor, An IV; 30 Germinal, 19 Floreal, 26 Fructidor, An V; 1 Ventose, An VI; 16 Ventose, 1 Nivose, 3 Pluviose, An VII. Many thanks to Maxime Préaud for letting me consult this material.
99. Though the register of deposits occasionally mentions wallpaper firms depositing, in the case of Chapuy, for instance, '2 Exemp. de differents dessins de papiers peints' (Ye 78a, 27 Pluviose An III), the bound volumes which contain the wallpaper dépôts consist exclusively of samplesIt is unclear whether these volumes contain all the deposits made or whether there are other groups of drawings/designs scattered throughout the library's holdings.
100. The occupation of the individuals making the dépôt is not always given. In the case of the submission of designs for clocks, only Larra specified that he was a ciseleur. However, since protection was being sought for the case designs and not the movements, I think it safe to assume that most of those depositing models were founders.
101. In a memorandum addressed to the Minister of the Interior in 1803, Jacquemard and Bénard noted that in order to combat the widespread piracy of their work, 'Nous nous sommes étayés jusqu'à présent de la loi du 19 juillet 1793', on the grounds of being painters and designers, while acknowledging that, 'nous avons interprété la loi en notre faveur quoi qu'au fond il paroisse quelle n'a pas été rendue que pour les peintres de tableaux et les dessinateurs d'objets susceptibles d'impression en taille douce.' A.N. F12/2885: Jacquemart et Benard to Jean-Antoine Chaptal, 13 Pluviose, An X (2 Feb. 1802).
102. Règlement concernant la contrefaction des papiers peints et tontisses dans la communauté des maîtres relieurs, papetiers-colleurs en meubles; homologué par sentence de M. le lieutenant-general de police, sur les conclusions de M. le procureur du roi, 11 Septembre 1778. Bib. Nat. Ms. f. fr. 22180/182.
103. See Bib. Nat. Cabinet des Estampes, Li 20.
104. See Bib. Nat. Cabinet des Estampes, Li 14 (Papiers de tenture Jacquemart et Bénard, An VII & VIII), Li 21 (Papiers de tenture Jacquemart et Bénard, An IX).
105. See A.N. F12/2285 Jacquemart et Bénard to Jean Antoine Chapta, 13 Pluviose, An X (2 Feb. 1802).
106. By contrast, article VIII of the 1778 regulation of the Corporation of Binders and Wallpaperers stated that: 'Les desseins seront censés copiés, non-seulement quand ils seront calqués ou copiés en entier; mais encore quand les principaux sujets ou la principale composition aura été imitée, & lesdits desseins ne differeront que par les accessoires.' See Règlement concernant les contrefactions, p. 4.
107. See A.N. F12/4647: Request for the establishment of a Conseil de prudhommes addressed to Jean Antoine Chaptal, March 1808.
108. See A.N. F12/2285: Report to the Minister of the Interior, Jean Antoine Chaptal, 2 Ventose, An X (21 Feb. 1802).
109. See a projet de loi also probably by Costaz at the Archives Nationales, F12/2285.
110. See Vaunois, op. cit., p. 14.
111. Chabaud, op. cit., pp. 34-53.
112. Most notably by Emmanuel Sieyes in Qu'est ce que le tiers état?, Paris, 1789.