Société des lunettiers
Contenu
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Nom
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Société des lunettiers
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Couverture temporelle
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1849 onwards
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Couverture spatiale
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Paris
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Société
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Association fraternelle des ouhvriers unetiers
Société des Lunetiers
Essel
Essilor
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Biographie
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Founded in 1849 as the 'Association fraternelle des ouvriers lunetiers', a cooperative or joint stock company set up by a group of workman influenced by the ideas of the socialist writer and businessman, Charles Fourier (1772-1835). In the beginning the company was funded by each workman contributing a part of his wages to the general capital of the company which was increased by constantly attributing to it a percentage of profits. Expanding rapidly, the company showed an extensive range of instruments at the 1876 Philadelphia Universal Exhibition.1 By 1900 it had five factories in the Meuse and the Jura and employed about a thousand people. From 1881 onwards it had a permanent London office at 56, Hatton Garden, while its travellers ranged throughout the world from the Far East to South America. In addition to spectacles and spectacle-lenses, the company also sold drawing and precision instruments in general. In 1930 the company owned factories in several parts of France as La Compasserie in Lorraine at Ligny-en-Barrois (Meuse) whereLes battants et Le Moulin were also situated. Other factories were at Mihiel and Cousances (Meuse); Songeons (Oise); Montreuil sous Bois, Morez (Jura); Longueville (Seine et Marne) and Foncine le Bas (Jura). The proprieters in 1924 were Pethe, Eparvier, Destribois et Cie. The company was renamed Essel at an un known date when several small Paris workshops were absorbed. In 1959 this group produced the new 'Varilux' lenses. It merged with Silor in 1972 to form the group Essilor (2).
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Notes biographiques
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1 Maquaire, Pontus & Harlé 92.
2 The company logo 'S & L' on either of a candelabra took several forms of which two, derived from the 1907 catalogue, are shown here.
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Bibliographie
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Catalogue général des instruments de] lunetterie, optique, mathématiques..., Paris 1897-99 re-issued in 1907, 1913, 1924.
Catalogue d'instruments pour les sciences. Physique, acoustique, électricité, optique, météorologie, Paris [1898], 1908
Articles spéciaux pour graveurs lithographes..., Paris 1903.
Autoptique, optomètre universel et automatique, n.d. [c.1920].
[Catalogue Générale] Paris 1924.
Supplément à notre tarif, Figures et texte, 1 April 1924 [27 illustrated pages to intercalated into the 1924 catallogue]
Tarif verres, Paris 1932.
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Adresse ; enseigne ; période ; source
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1900-1910: 6 rue Pastourelle Paris
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Identifiant
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542
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ark:/18469/1qq0x