C17



Jean-Louis Van Belle


Deux livres d'expéditions de marbres d'un marchand de Beaumont-Rance en Hainaut (1769-1784), Bruxelles, Commission royale d'Histoire, 2010, LXII-275 p. (Collection grand in-8°, C 17) (ISBN 978-2-87044-004-9)

38 €
 

The conservation of these sorts of document is currently extremely rare for the time. They are the only ones for the marble industry for this period.
A careful study of these shipping books from the major marble company belonging to Pierre-Joseph Thomas, whose brother-in-law, Jean-Joseph Boutée, was a partner for a time, has provided a wide range of data on the marble industry in Hainaut and its international trade, particularly with France. Numerous towns and some fifteen departments - the furthest being Calvados (14), Doubs (25) and Saône-et-Loire (71) - were concerned with these multiple deliveries (several hundred), not to mention numerous Belgian communes (Bruges, Brussels, Ghent, Mons, etc.).
A wealth of information relating to the transport requirements for marble and the cost, the types of products (tables, altars, mantelpieces, blocks, etc.) and the clientele (private customers, abbeys), is revealed throughout the 250 pages of these manuscripts.