Briar: Notes on the history of briar blocks - V

Below the headline of Le Var (political, administrative, agricultural, industrial and commercial newspaper of the Department) dated Thursday, May 7th, 1868, is a dense political bulletin. At the bottom of the page is the Feuilleton du Var: La fiancée de la mer - histoire vénitienne. On the fourth and last page, we can see a few advertisements, but it is the annonces judiciaires that are worth reading: one of them reveals that on March 20th of that same year Mr. Frédéric Antoine Vassas, a pipe manufacturer in Le Muy, bought a rural property located in the territory of Le Muy, quartier des Paradous from Mr. Joseph Benoit Sivan, postmaster in Nice, for three thousand francs.

Although The Var is now a department nestled between Marseille and Cannes, facing the Mediterranean, in 1868 the region was larger. Today the capital is Toulon, but then it was Draguignan. Le Muy, a village in the arrondissement of Draguignan, was a good choice for a pipe and briar expert like Frédéric Vassas, who had moved there around 1860. Located near the Massif des Maures where Erica arborea flourished, it had a railway station and plenty of water. What was even better was the choice of the newly acquired land on which he intended to build a new home: “Paradou” in the Provençal language meant a special kind of water mill used for fulling wool and felt, by repeatedly pressing the fabric to achieve compactness, lightness, and softness. However, Frédéric was uninterested in this. The only thing that mattered to him was the water, flowing and turning one or more wheels to set his pipe-manufacturing machines in motion. He was looking forward to it, even if it would be some time before he moved. After so many moves, Paradou would become his permanent home, with a workshop attached. 

At least eight years earlier he had come to Le Muy with his family. Some information can be found about how he spent these years, as well as how he spent the subsequent ones, by examining some civil status records, but especially the census records kept at the Archives Départementales du Var. The record from April 2nd, 1860, refers to a birth that occurred on March 31st. The birth was François Joseph Séraphin, son of Vassas Antoine Frédéric, a turner (tourneur), age thirty-eight, and Parizel Henriette Marie, age thirty, without profession (sans profession). In official documents of the time, this was the standard definition for women staying at home. 

The following year, 1861, was census year when the Vassas family lived in the Le Galinier area. Vassas Fréderic, manufacturer of wooden pipes, head of the family, forty years old; Parizel Célina, his wife (actually her name was Henriette Marie, but she was always known as Célina), thirty-four years old, followed by their children Séraphine, seven; Ernest, six; Antoine, four; and Joseph Séraphin, one. The latter, as noted, was born in Le Muy, the others in Saint-Paul de Fenouillet. Two other residents were also lived there: Bedor Roger, Frédéric’s partner, aged twenty-six, and Gros Benoît, a labourer, aged twenty-seven.

In the 1866 census, the Vassas family are shown as living in the Grande Route. The residents are Vassas Frédéric, briar wood pipe manufacturer, head of the family, age forty-five; Parizel Célina, wife, age thirty-nine; followed by children Séraphine, age twelve; Ernest, eleven; Antoine, nine; Marie, six; and Justin, one. Joseph Séraphin is sadly missing, having died at a very young age. No other residents are present, as the partner Bedor left. On the other hand, living with their families in the house next door are Forquier Jean and Lacombe Barthelemy, both twenty-nine years old and qualified as ouvrier en pipe de bruyère, a worker specializing in carving briar wood pipes.

A new census took place a year late, in 1872, due to the war with Prussia, in which the Vassas family were this time in the Bellugues area. Fréderic, a briar wood pipe manufacturer (fifty-one), and Célina (forty-nine) are registered first. They are followed by their children Séraphine (eighteen) Ernest (seventeen) Antonin (eleven) Marie (ten) Justin (six) Joséphine (four) Augustine (two). Their neighbours are Salvat Jules, ouvrier pipier (pipe worker) born in Saint-Paul de Fenouillet and Guigon Pierre, scieur (sawyer). The new house in Paradou at that time was probably almost completed. Indeed, the 1876 census records the move to Paradou by placing the family in a generic area of maisons isolées, meaning scattered houses, with the following inhabitants listed as Frédéric (fifty-five) pipe manufacturer, Célina (forty-seven), Séraphine (twenty-two), Ernest (twenty-one), Antonin (nineteen), Marie (eighteen), Justin (ten), Joséphine (nine), and Augustine (seven). However, the new house was large enough to accommodate Salvat Jules and Salvat Baptiste as well, both born in Saint-Paul de Fenouillet, qualified ouvrier pipier, and Guigon Pierre, scieur.

Five years later (1881) the family is still at the same address. The area is now called Le Paradou et le Moulinard. Sadly, Frédéric passed away at the end of February 1879 and Célina (fifty) manufacturer of briar blocks, is the new head of the family, followed by Ernest (twenty-seven) manufacturer of briar blocks, Marie Souire, wife of Ernest (nineteen), Antonin (twenty-four) manufacturer of briar blocks, Marie (twenty), Justin (sixteen), Joséphine (fourteen), and Augustine (twelve). Séraphine has married and lives elsewhere.

The 1886 census records that Célina also passed away in November 1884 and the new head of the family is now Ernest (thirty-one), negotiant (merchant), with his wife Maria (twenty-two) and children Raoul (three) and Albertine (six months). In addition, there is also Antonin (twenty-nine) negotiant, Maria (twenty-four), Justin (twenty) negotiant, Joséphine (eighteen), and Augustine (sixteen). The housekeepers are Guigon Anne (forty-nine) domestique and Versalone Joseph (thirty-six) from Italy, domestique. Thanks to the new Rue du Paradou, the Vassas family house is no longer isolated. Many members of the Demuth family, originally from Luxembourg, live on the new street. One of them, François Demuth, bouchonnier (cork maker) is Séraphine Vassas’ husband.

In the following census, 1891, the house in Paradou is empty. The only Vassas left in the area (Rue du Paradou) is Séraphine, together with her husband and three children.

The Vassas family moved three times over around fifteen years, which were fruitful not only in terms of housing. By 1874, among other things, the head of the family had acquired another larger property: 33 hectares still in the Le Muy area. From the early 1880s his elder sons began to work with him.

Frédéric had begun his business as a tourneur in Le Muy, which is what is written on his son’s (Seraphin) birth certificate, 1860. However, in the 1861 census the following year, he is a “wooden pipe manufacturer”. Why generically “wooden?” The census taker may not have known what briar wood was, but by the next census Frédéric is finally registered correctly as manufacturer of pipes de bruyère.

Initially, the briar blocks had seemed of little interest to him, as he preferred pipes as the finished product. Yet, as the years passed, he had had to reconsider everything.  Indeed, competition from Saint-Paul was making itself increasingly felt daily, and meanwhile the demand for briar blocks was on the rise. Thus, in the 1872 census, a scieur, (sawyer) is mentioned and what is a scieur for if not to produce briar blocks? It was probably at that time that sacks stamped with “Vassas Frédéric” began to arrive at some pipe factories. Sacks of briar blocks, of course. However, Frédéric would never give up making pipes and the term “pipe manufacturer” is even written on his death certificate.

Célina was practical and full of common sense. When she suddenly had to take charge of the enterprise following her husband’s death, it did not take her long to abandon the finished product, and thus in the 1881 census both she and her two older sons declared themselves briar block manufacturers.

On Célina’s death certificate the registrar wrote the name that everyone had given her since she was young, but a scrupulous bureaucrat later crossed out “Célina” leaving only “Henriette Marie”. On the other hand, the section referring to profession reads “fabricant d'ébauchons de pipe and not “sans profession”, which means she was given due recognition.

Taking over the family business, the sons launched themselves in the business with very clear ideas. In the 1886 census Ernest, Antonin and Justin called themselves negotiant (merchant). Their activity now went beyond the simple production of briar blocks, taking on a more commercial, entrepreneurial role. There were two housekeepers in the house, but no pipier workers and no sawyers, suggesting that the Paradou workshop had lost importance, and production was already elsewhere.

For now, this is what can be understood from one birth record, two death records and seven censuses. Yet, nothing is final in this kind of research: even one new piece of information could change our approach to the facts. While waiting for any new information, further considerations can be made.

Who was Salvat Jules, ouvrier pipier born in Saint-Paul de Fenouillet, mentioned in the 1872 census and who was Salvat Baptiste, the other ouvrier pipier born in Saint-Paul de Fenouillet, who appears beside Jules in the 1886 census? 

According to the Saint-Paul census, in 1856 Ambroise was twenty-nine years old and Baptiste twenty-three. Their grandsons Jules and Baptiste were respectively eleven and four. Fréderic Vassas was thirty-four, and Justin twenty-eight.

They all lived on the same street. Excluding farmer Louis and his two young sons, what was the relationship between the two Salvat brothers and the two Vassas brothers? Were they simply working in the same business, or did they have closer ties? Paul Èmile Poitras’ 1849 account mentions a Frédéric who discovered how the Pyrenean people used briar wood, so did Frédéric talk to the Salvats about this? Was he involved in experiments to produce briar blocks and pipes? In any case, when he left Saint-Paul (and in the meantime Ambroise was also leaving) he was able to produce both briar blocks and pipes. A final consideration is that Lacombe Barthelemy, who is listed in the 1866 census as resident in Le Muy in the house next to that of the Vassas family, was also born in Saint-Paul de Fenouillet. Even then, or in later years he would also play a role in the history of briar blocks.

In October 1878 Fréderic fell ill. As soon as he recovered, he wasted no time in writing his will. He died on April 30th, 1879, but succession to the business would only occur in 1892. During these fourteen years the business was run jointly by Célina (until 1884) and her three sons (Justin joined the others between 1884 and 1886). The pipes were abandoned and now the focus was on briar blocks and cork. In the 1880s and 1890s the future development of briar wood pipes was already delineated: Saint-Claude and other manufacturers, both French and foreign, were demanding more and more blocks. However, the Pyrenean and French Mediterranean coast scrubland yielded insufficient briar and was in danger of running out of the wood altogether. The cost of labour employed in uprooting the briar burls may have also had an impact.

As long as the center of production had remained around Perpignan, manufacturing had also crossed the border into Spain. Once the centre shifted to the Var and the Alpes Maritimes, it was only natural to turn to the other border along the coast, the one with Italy. Moreover, Corsica was also viewed as a suitable place, where production gradually began around 1870.

Therefore, what happened in Italy in the late nineteenth century as regards briar blocks? Several Italian and French publications vaguely mention this production.

- Published in Rome in 1906, the Bulletin of the Labour Office states that the production of briar blocks has been taking place in Italy for around thirty-five years, starting in Liguria, then Sardinia, Tuscany, Lazio, Calabria, and Sicily, according to a “Memoir of Briar Cutters for Pipes” published in Reggio Calabria in 1905. This suggests that the activity started around 1870. 

- The article L’industrie algérienne des ébauchons de pipe (The Algerian industry of briar blocks for pipes) written by Pierre Lafuente in the 1933 issue of the Bulletin économique, reads: 

As the forests of Roussillon could no longer supply enough briar wood, one of our main firms settled in the Var in order to exploit the Maures and Esterel forests and, around 1865, installed several sawmills in Liguria (Italy). The briar wood pipe was finally launched and became increasingly popular with consumers, and the production of briar blocks also increased significantly from year to year. The forest regions of Tuscany, Calabria, Sicily, and Sardinia were in turn exploited at the same time as the forests of Corsica.

If these claims were accurate, they would confirm those made in the Bulletin of the Labour Office (indeed, they would go further back in time), but would challenge some of the conclusions drawn from Le Muy’s censuses. The article appears to be reliable: the Bulletin économique, printed in Algiers, was the official journal of the French OFALAC, Office Algérien d'Action Économique et Touristique. Lafuente was president of the commercial section of the industrial court in Philippeville, now Skikda. At the bottom of the article he thanks Monsieur Faillenot, general manager of the Vassas workshops, for his valuable information. The Vassas family had briar block sawmills in several locations on the Algerian coast and Lafuente referred to them when speaking of “one of our principal firms”. However, if the Vassas family really arrived in Liguria around 1865, why then did Frédéric, in the 1866 census, call himself a pipe manufacturer and not a briar block cutter? The answer is simple: he had declared what he still considered to be his most important activity, or else by “pipes” he had also meant briar blocks for pipes, namely “rough pipes”. As for the Roussillon region, it coincides almost exactly with that of the Eastern Pyrenees.

Between 1895 and 1896 the Roman periodical, “L'Eco dei Campi e dei Boschi”, published a series of seven articles devoted to the production of briar blocks for pipes. Together they constitute the oldest known comprehensive text on the subject. The consistent and well-documented articles range from the technical aspects of sawmills to financial and forestry characteristics. They were written by A. Franchi. Who was this man? He certainly knew how to write and demonstrated expertise on the subject. However, he was neither an agronomist, nor a manufacturer in this field, although there was a person called Franchi, a briar block cutter who worked for a long time in Fauglia (Tuscan Maremma) in the first half of the twentieth century. Actually, Annibale Franchi was a forestry inspector, as attested by an 1893 document and another from 1904, in which he is referred to as “first class” and a “gentleman”.  His third article in the “Eco”, 1895, reads:

Throughout the regions of southern Europe where Erica arborea grows, the French, who lack neither activity nor capital, have been harvesting the briar burl by cutting it on site in order to bring it back home where it finds its final and profitable completion […]

Twenty years ago, it was only Frenchmen who owned and worked the sawmills. Nowadays, however, although there are still Frenchmen who have remained among us continuing this kind of work, the management and transactions of the sawn wood is almost exclusively in the hands of Italians, who ship it mostly to France and much less to Germany and Austria […] Local workers are employed for the rough manual work of excavating the briar in the forests. However, as soon as some skill is needed for sawing here, it is the foreign industrialist who imports his own labourers and this is why the sawyers are almost exclusively Corsican or French. As foreign industrialists have gradually been replaced by local entrepreneurs, workers from the towns have also been trained. However, up to now there have been few, and in the sawmills it is still the Italian labourer who toils away.

Franchi speaks of “twenty years ago” (1875) referring to when it was “all French sawmill owners and workers”, not when the first sawmill was established in Italy, which leaves open the hypothesis of the 1860s as being the beginning of production in the sawmills.

Other publications refer to the 1880s as the beginning of the activity in Italy. Thus, the few texts concerning briar blocks are rather vague. It may be worthwhile to rely on Italian sources.  

The National Office of Statistics began a survey of industries in Italy in 1883. The necessary information was requested from a number of bodies and institutions: from Ministries to the General Directorates of Commercial Rights and Taxes, from the technical offices of the Ministry of Finance to the Chambers of Commerce and Arts. The data collected were published between 1885 and 1903 in various separate monographs, province by province, as well as others specific to the most important industrial sectors. This was a commendable initiative, and naturally the thoroughness of the surveys depended on the diligence and spirit of cooperation on the part of the various representatives.

Thus, in 1887, in issue no. 10 of the Annals of Statistics, Industrial Statistics - news on the industrial conditions of the province of Livorno, we can “finally” read, in the last lines of the small chapter “Factories for furniture and other woodwork”: 

Finally, there is [in the municipality of Livorno] a steam-driven sawmill producing briar blocks for pipes. The owner is the Houiter Arnaldi firm, which uses 8 horsepower machinery and employs 12 male adults for production. 

In short, in 1887 briar wood for pipes was “finally” being called by its name in an official Italian document, whereas in Saint-Paul-de-Fenouillet they had already been doing so since at least 1856.

In 1901, the “classification of professions or conditions” to be used in the Census of the Population of the Kingdom of Italy formalized the designation “briar wood pipe cutters” by placing it in class eight (woodworking) under item 7, along with wood turners, makers of wooden typefaces and wooden combs. In the tables of census results, published in 1904, briar wood pipe cutters and wood turners were counted together without making any kind of distinction.

Having completed the survey that was launched in 1883, the General Directorate felt the need to collate the data in a new publication to highlight the overall state of the major industries in 1903. Every effort was made to update the data, which in some cases went back to 1885, but not everything worked properly and there were quite a few discrepancies. The new laborious report (“Summary of Information on Industrial Conditions in the Kingdom”) was produced in three parts between 1905 and 1906. The first, which in point of fact came out last, reads: 

[…] the 1903 survey found more than 500 workers engaged in sawmill work for briar blocks for pipes or in finishing the blocks thus obtained. An examination of the provinces where this kind of industry is practiced reveals that labour is most abundant in the provinces of Como, Grosseto, Milan, and Reggio di Calabria and less so in those of Siena, Catanzaro, Vicenza, Cagliari, Macerata, Pesaro and Urbino, Pisa and Messina. Most of the workshops make use of mechanical engines, whereas in the others, production is manual.

Unfortunately, in this report pipes and briar blocks were still mentioned together. From the province-by-province tables (second part of the Summary) it appears that the manufacture of the latter was given only in the provinces of Catanzaro (28 employees) Grosseto (89) Reggio Calabria (78) and Siena (39). From other findings it is known that this is not exactly the case. As for pipes, it appears that there were (as many or as few) in all the other provinces listed, and also in two that do not appear on the list: Cosenza and Forli. More precise data are obtained from some of the individual monographs that came out between 1885 and 1903: in the forty-fourth (1893, province of Milan) the Rossi brothers are mentioned among pipe manufacturers, along with three other firms. It may come as a surprise that the survey reported an abundant production of pipes in the province of Como but considering that Varese was then part of that province explains this fact.

 In short, there is little data which is also confusing. Very few precise indications are found only in some of the Annals.

-In 1887: the Huiter Arnaldi firm in Livorno, as mentioned above.

-In 1889 and the following years (Calabria): In July 1889 a steam-powered sawmill for briar blocks was established in the town of Mammola by the Vassas Brothers firm, and later two similar factories were built by the same firm in the towns of Santa Cristina d’Aspromonte and Cittanova respectively. In the first factory, which is powered by an 8 horsepower steam engine with a 20 horsepower boiler, 9 adult male workers are employed. In the second, only 7 are employed, with a 6 horsepower steam engine. Finally, in the third that is driven by a 3 horsepower hydraulic engine, 4 workers are employed. The raw material is briar roots that grow abundantly on public property and on privately owned mountain land. Thanks to special agreements, the firm buys the burls, which are uprooted, cleaned and brought to the factory, which passes on a right to the owners and remunerates the harvesters. The products of these factories are exported especially to Marseille. 

-In 1891 (province of Siena): Two sawmills, one in the municipality of Chiusdino and one in the municipality of Colle di Val d’Elsa, each with a 4 horsepower hydraulic motor, employ for about 9 months of the year 9 workers, of whom 7 male adults and one female, and one boy under 15. The products of these two sawmills, which consist of briar wood blocks for pipes, are shipped to France for further production. 

-In 1892 (province of Grosseto): There is a briar wood sawmill for pipes in Campagnatico, equipped with an 8 horsepower turbine. It employs 7 male adult workers for about 318 days of the year and sends its products to Saint-Claude in France (Jura). Two other sawmills for briar wood blocks for pipes exist in the municipality of Massa Marittima, both provided with steam engines of a total output of 11 horsepower. An average of 25 workers, all adult males, find work there for 200 days of the year. The raw material used for manufacturing in these factories comes from the forests in the municipality of Massa Marittima and their products are likewise shipped to Saint-Claude. 

-In 1893 (Calabria): Mr. Bernardo Visiani operates a sawmill producing briar blocks for pipes in the municipality of Fabrizia, driven by a 4 horsepower hydraulic motor. This sawmill employs 6 adult male workers while about 50 others attend to the harvesting of briar roots in the forests in the municipality of Fabrizia and those of Mongiana. 

-In 1895 (province of Messina): In the municipality of Rocca Valdina, in the Scala district, there is a pipe factory owned by the Vassas Brothers company. The factory has a steam boiler with a heating area of 13. 87 sq. m., corresponding to almost 12 horsepower, which drives a sawmill for the preparation of briar blocks for pipes. Four adult male workers, including the machinist, are employed in the mill for about 220 days of the year. 

Thus, all these events occur in the 1880s/1890s, apart from one exception: page 50 of the Annals of statistics, Industrial statistics, issue no. 49 – “news of the industrial conditions in the province of Pisa”, published in Rome in 1894, reads:

BRIAR WOOD PIPE FACTORIES. Since 1866 in the municipality of Cecina a small factory of briar wood pipes has existed, owned by the Toncelli Giuseppe firm, in which 4 adult male workers and 3 females also adults are employed every weekday of the year. In this factory a steam engine of the strength of 6 horsepower will later be activated intended to drive all the machinery that is currently operated manually. The average annual production is about 4,000 dozen pipes, which are shipped to cities throughout Italy and abroad, especially to France and Greece.

Evidence of this factory has been confirmed. In 1906, at the International Exposition in Milan, the Toncelli and Sons firm was even awarded a bronze medal for briar blocks and a gold medal for their pipes. The family continued to produce pipes until the 1980s, with varying fortunes. The date when these activities began, however, is not confirmed by other records, and some doubts arise. Incidentally, if indeed Toncelli began making briar wood pipes in 1866, one has to wonder who, in the previous years, had taught him the trade.

Apart from issue no. 49 of the Annals of Statistics, it is only the Bulletin of the Labour Office, the Bulletin économique and the testimony of Annibale Franchi that support the 1860s/70s hypothesis. All other sources considered so far, including some travel books, provide no mention of it. What is the reason for this oversight? There are two possibilities. Either there were in fact no sawmills for briar blocks in Italy before the 1880s, or else they did in fact exist, but were simply ignored by statisticians and travelers. Being confined to the outskirts of towns and villages, they were considered “oddities” worthy of no attention.

In the 1860s/1870s, however, the border was permeable between France, which was engaged in the transition from empire to republic, and Italy, focused on the events for unification. Tales are told of Frenchmen going to Sardinia from Corsica to extract minerals there, and from Sardinia disembarking in Tuscany, of families from Nice who had migrated to Italy after it was annexed to France (1860). Endless ties, kinship, shared memories existed between the two border areas and ideas and news circulated, and so did people. Why exclude that some Frenchmen went into Italy ahead of their time, extracting burls in Liguria and then Tuscany (and then further south) well before those few documented cases?

There is also the fact that early sawmills were small, light and simple, designed to be easily dismantled and taken elsewhere as soon as the “deposit” of burls was exhausted. How many of these temporary installations, established in a forest by virtue of a simple verbal agreement with the owner, perhaps in the 1870s or even in the 1860s, remained beyond the reach of those who could or should have taken them over?

Incidentally, after the proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy (1861), a long, arduous task was undertaken in order to standardise the current regulations in the various pre-unification states, including in the field of forest management. Forests were already seen as assets to be safeguarded, especially if publicly owned. Indeed, they were valuable timber reserves and land to be defended from fires and hydrogeological disruption. However, the regulations differed between states: the most stringent had been issued by the Papal States, whereas the most lenient by the Grand Duchy of Tuscany. The organizations in charge of safeguarding and surveillance also differed. It was not until 1877 that the first Italian forestry legislation was implemented, and the consequent reorganization of the bodies in charge, their personnel, and the procedures for issuing permits, as well as prohibitions and monitoring. In this long transitional phase, it is reasonable to believe that the established authorities overlooked the sawmills, which is why no evidence remains, especially in some regions.

Or else some evidence may have remained, but it must be sought elsewhere through painstaking research into other potential sources.

A special thanks to:

Claude Vassas,

Archives Départementales du Var,

Archivio Storico Civico e Biblioteca Trivulziana Castello Sforzesco Milano,

Archivio Storico del Comune di Cecina,

Centre d'études diocésain Les Glycines Alger,

Biblioteca del Comune di Macerata,

Università degli Studi di Firenze Biblioteca di Scienze Tecnologiche Agraria,

Biblioteca della Scienza e della Tecnica Università degli Studi di Pavia