Lapidary's work

The country people of Gex, like other inhabitants in the Valley de la Valserine, have always looked for secondary activities to improve everyday life. Clockmakers and lapidaries in the 17th and 18th centuries, they became lapidaries and diamond-cutters in the centuries thereafter. A tale full of brilliance.

Lapidary or diamond-cutter: the profession is quite different.

These two activities differ above all by the substance worked: precious stones, paste or diamonds. The energy sources required and the size of the production units set them apart too. For example, the work of the lapidary can be done at home using fairly simple tools: a small lead wheel ground with emery, operated by a crank and a spindle on which the stone is fixed with cement. The cut stone is then polished with a grinding wheel made of tin for the imitation stones and a wheel made of copper for the precious stones. The tools are fixed to a workbench - a small worktable made of fir - which can be moved and placed under a window to work in the light.

The job of diamond-cutter is very different. It requires more elaborate technology, a much more powerful driving force and it is necessary to group together in small units of ten to thirty workers. These workshops are set up close to a stream, using the mechanical force of the water at first and then its transformation into electric energy.

Clockmakers

The reason behind the work of lapidary expanding was connected to the needs of clock making in Geneva, a booming industry in the 18th century. A counter-pivot in cut stone is needed for the watch mechanisms. In view of the increase in the clock making business, Genevan manufacturing sub-contracted the rough movement of the watches (the "mocks") and the stone cutting to the neighbouring rural areas: Valley de l'Arve, Pays de Gex and Haut-Jura. In 1748, the lapidaries in the Pays de Gex got themselves organized and 40 craftsmen signed the statutes for a "maîtrise" (authorisation to work independently). In 1761 and 1767, about 240 master craftsmen, 95 post-apprentices and 60 apprentices could be numbered. Numbers in the profession fell to 26 master craftsmen in 1784.

This trend followed that of clock making. On the other hand, leaving the Pays de Gex, it spread to the Haut-Jura plateau where 600 lapidaries were working around 1770 and they sent a large part of what they produced to Paris. The job of lapidary remained very much alive in this area of the Jura mountains throughout the 19th century. In 1827, the parish of Septmoncel counted 2960 inhabitants and 400 lapidaries who cut about 80 000 "grosses" (twelve dozens of stones) per year. A good lapidary, putting in 150 days of work in the year, could cut 70 grosses.

From 1850 onwards, a few lapidaries worked in the Valley of the Valserine. Ten years later, the district of Gex that includes Mijoux within its territory, counted 110 lapidaries (60 men and 50 women) who worked for various employers. In 1908, 200 people in Lélex and 200 in Chézery were farmers in summer and lapidaries in winter.

Goudard, a native of Gex from Divonne, set up a first diamond-cutting workshop in Paris in 1872, using Dutch technology, then a second in Saint-Genis in 1874 that he entrusted into the care of Mr Donnet. In 1877, in partnership with his cousin Sylvain Dalloz, they created a third workshop in Montbrillant in the Jura (in the Saint-Sauveur district) and then a fourth at Saint-Claude in 1884. Lots of workshops were to spring up in the Pays de Gex and the Valley de la Valserine in the form of a cooperative or as an independent business employing workers.

In 1925, the district numbered around twenty lapidary and ten or so diamond-cutting workshops. Few were to survive the economic crisis of the thirties. Today, the Dalloz firms still have a workshop at Cessy and a lapidary business preserves the tradition in Mijoux: SARL Trabbia-Vuillermoz.

Alexandre Malgouverné.