Saint-Claude: Difference between revisions

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[[Saint-Claude]] is a commune in the [[Jura]] department in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region in eastern France and was the world capital of wooden smoking pipes crafted by hand from the mid 19th century all the way to the mid 20th century.<ref>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint-Claude,_Jura</ref>
[[Saint-Claude]] is a commune in the Jura department in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region in eastern France and was the world capital of wooden smoking pipes crafted by hand from the mid 19th century all the way to the mid 20th century.<ref>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint-Claude,_Jura</ref>


As early as the Middle Ages an established place of pilgrimage in Eastern France was the monastery of abbot Saint Claudius.  In medieval iconography Saint Claudius was the patron saint of toymakers.  The town that grew servicing the pilgrims was Saint-Claude. The pilgrims arrived from all over the Christian world, and the towns people made mementos for sale and lived off business from the pilgrims. The town also produced snuff and pipe stems made of boxwood, bone, horn and amber which they sold to Switzerland, Germany, and Austria.  In time Saint-Claude became a thriving centre of wooden souvenirs, gem-setting, and luxuriously-carved pipe stems. According to local legend a Saint-Claude turner named David is credited with the making the first briar pipe.  The souvenir industry of Saint-Claude supplied all the manufacturing preconditions for the making of the briar pipe.  The firm of Jeantet as early as 1807 was making and selling German type porcelain pipes, [[Ulmer Maserholzpfeifen|Ulm-type wood pipes]] and meerschaums from local wood and horn.  The contemporary technology determined the shape of the pipes, and they were typically composed of wood-turned parts. Local records indicate that in 1841 there were three pipe-making firms employing twenty workers.  1854 is the year ascribed to the beginning of pipes made from briar.<ref>Ferenc Levárdy: Our Pipe-Smoking Forebears, Velburg: Osskó (Self-published) 1994</ref>
As early as the Middle Ages an established place of pilgrimage in Eastern France was the monastery of abbot Saint Claudius.  In medieval iconography Saint Claudius was the patron saint of toymakers.  The town that grew servicing the pilgrims was Saint-Claude. The pilgrims arrived from all over the Christian world, and the towns people made mementos for sale and lived off business from the pilgrims. The town also produced snuff and pipe stems made of boxwood, bone, horn and amber which they sold to Switzerland, Germany, and Austria.  In time Saint-Claude became a thriving centre of wooden souvenirs, gem-setting, and luxuriously-carved pipe stems. According to local legend a Saint-Claude turner named David is credited with the making the first briar pipe.  The souvenir industry of Saint-Claude supplied all the manufacturing preconditions for the making of the briar pipe.  The firm of Jeantet as early as 1807 was making and selling German type porcelain pipes, [[Ulmer Maserholzpfeifen|Ulm-type wood pipes]] and meerschaums from local wood and horn.  The contemporary technology determined the shape of the pipes, and they were typically composed of wood-turned parts. Local records indicate that in 1841 there were three pipe-making firms employing twenty workers.  1854 is the year ascribed to the beginning of pipes made from briar.<ref>Ferenc Levárdy: Our Pipe-Smoking Forebears, Velburg: Osskó (Self-published) 1994</ref>