1. AND THE WATERMARKS OF LYON
BACKTRACKING BRIQUET,
LES FILIGRANES (1907)
AND THE WATERMARKS OF LYON
Ilaria Pastrolin
University of Udine
Vienna, 19th-20th October th International Conference. Watermarks in Digital Collections

2. Charles-Moïse Briquet
Geneva, 30th August 1839 – Geneva, 24th January 1918
Vienna, 19th-20th October th International Conference. Watermarks in Digital Collections

3. The three editions that matter: 1907, 1923, 1968 (Jubilee edition)
Les Filigranes
The three editions that matter: 1907, 1923, 1968 (Jubilee edition)
watermarks in primary sequence
Approximately secondary references
Vienna, 19th-20th October th International Conference. Watermarks in Digital Collections

4. Briquet was in Lyon approximately in 1887.
Here is the first page concerning Lyon in his diary (Bibliothèque de Genève, Papiers Briquet 39).
Vienna, 19th-20th October th International Conference. Watermarks in Digital Collections

5. Lyon, Archives Municipales: 113 primary references
My research
Lyon, Archives Municipales: 113 primary references
Lyon, Archives Départementales: 91 primary references
February-September I sought out Briquet’s original watermarks and found 199 of them.
Vienna, 19th-20th October th International Conference. Watermarks in Digital Collections

6. ONE CASE STUDY 10 G 114 = G 41 in Briquet
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7. History of the document
Acts of the Chapter of the Church of Saint John in Lyon, , in the Archives départementales du Rhône et de la métropole de Lyon.
Date given in Briquet: 1531.
Vienna, 19th-20th October th International Conference. Watermarks in Digital Collections

8. Saint John’s Cathedral in Vieux Lyon
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9. « En 1859, lorsque le préfet Vaïsse décida à nouveau de s'installer à l'hôtel de ville, les archives retournèrent dans les combles [where they remained until 1890] ; archives départementales et archives communales y étaient réunies, puisque Vaïsse cumulait les fonctions de préfet et de maire de Lyon ».
Item « Archive », in (4 N). l’Inventaire du fonds des bâtiments départementaux.
Vienna, 19th-20th October th International Conference. Watermarks in Digital Collections

10. Archives départementales du Rhône et de la métropole de Lyon.
New building of the 2014.
Vienna, 19th-20th October th International Conference.
Watermarks in Digital Collections

11. Codicological and watermark description
Unusually for a document in the Lyon archives, the manuscript contains a single pair of grape watermarks, i.e. Briquet
Vienna, 19th-20th October th International Conference. Watermarks in Digital Collections

12. The structure of the manuscript – in Folio format – is as follows:
ff. [I, II] = 1 non-numbered sheet
ff. [III, IX], 1
ff. [X, XI]
ff. 2-49 ff ff ff ff
Vienna, 19th-20th October th International Conference. Watermarks in Digital Collections

13. BRIQUET 13158
The twin watermarks are both placed in the left-hand side of the original moulds (i.e. in the right-hand side when the sheet is viewed from the mould side).
They are distinguished as L and LL.
L is present 28 times (45,9%)
LL is present 33 times (54,1%)
Vienna, 19th-20th October th International Conference. Watermarks in Digital Collections

14. Technical Description of the Twin Moulds
Vienna, 19th-20th October th International Conference. Watermarks in Digital Collections

15. L LL
Sheet dimensions (m)
0,58 x 0,41
Ratio between the sides
1,414
Position of the watermark on the sheet
Left (MsR)
Watermark type
Grape (raisin) with the letters SB
Percentage in the total number of sheets
45,9%
54,1%
Difficulty in distinguishing the twins (1 to 10 scale) 1
Height (mm) 46
Width (mm) 28 25
Distance between the watermark and the chain line on its left 30 9
Distance between the watermark and the chain line on its right 33
Distance between the watermark and the bottom of the sheet
176
187
Distance between the watermark and the top of the sheet
191
180
Watermark on a supplementary chain line (if yes: distance between the other ones) No
Distance between the chain lines (mm)
33-34
Number of chain lines in the sheet 16
Tranchefile
Yes

16. Watermark distribution and analysis
Vienna, 19th-20th October th International Conference. Watermarks in Digital Collections

17. Archives du département du Rhône et de la métropole de Lyon,
(10 G 114)
Vienna, 19th-20th October th International Conference. Watermarks in Digital Collections

18. How do we tell them apart?
In both the stem of the bunch of grapes points left.
L has drifted over the left chain line; LL has drifted the other way.
LL has lost its outer left-hand grape; L is still intact.
In L the grape pressing onto the letter B is small; in LL it is large.
Vienna, 19th-20th October th International Conference. Watermarks in Digital Collections

19. Each line is a sheet of paper with the watermark in one half.
The distribution of the twin watermarks in the manuscript appears in the following simple table.
Each line is a sheet of paper with the watermark in one half.
Vienna, 19th-20th October th International Conference. Watermarks in Digital Collections

20. Vienna, 19th-20th October 2017 4th International Conference
Vienna, 19th-20th October th International Conference. Watermarks in Digital Collections

21. BRIQUET 13158 reproduces an L watermark
BRIQUET reproduces an L watermark. He seems to have traced it from the mould side.
Vienna, 19th-20th October th International Conference. Watermarks in Digital Collections

22. In fact, the tracing in the Briquet archive at the Bibliothèque de Genève shows that he originally chose the felt side.
Vienna, 19th-20th October th International Conference. Watermarks in Digital Collections

23. On the tracing, he wrote in pencil the place, the date, the name of the archive and the shelf-mark of the document, and the sheet dimensions with the annotation “rogné”.
He also traces the density of the wirelines (22 in 20 mm in my measurement).
The tracing informs us also about other manuscripts in which Briquet found this watermark: after noting “G 41” (= 10 G 114), he added “G /38, G /40, G /47, G /50, G ”.
Vienna, 19th-20th October th International Conference. Watermarks in Digital Collections

24. In Les Filigranes, however, this information is synthesized as a “variante identique” and “Lyon ”.
Vienna, 19th-20th October th International Conference. Watermarks in Digital Collections

25. Conclusions
These watermarks come with all the prestige and authority of Briquet’s still unsurpassed repertory.
Going back to the archive, however, both to his original tracing and to the document he traced in order to find the original twin watermarks, makes identification a much solider proposition.
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26. Twinship defines watermarks
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