Hôtel de Longueville – Détailleur 1791
Géricault Life
Archives de Paris, Hôtel de Longueville – le ferme générale – jouissance du 1er 8bre 1791, Bail de 9 années. (detail) D. Q10 342.
Introduction and Background
As we have noted, the Hôtel de Longueville was one of the most important cultural and economic sites in Paris from 1791 to 1806, but remained until now largely understudied. Many readers know that Théodore Géricault’s father worked at the family tobacco concern situated at the Hôtel de Longueville.
We continue our discussion of the Hôtel de Longueville with our first examination of Jean Marie Détailleur, homme de loi. Détailleur (also Déstailleur) is a fascinating and almost unknown figure who, with his various partners and tenants at the Hôtel de Longueville, played an instrumental role in shaping the culture of Paris from 1791 through 1810.
We do not know much about Jean Marie Détailleur’s life before 1791. In 1786 he married Marie Neucourt; Marie died in 1797. Jean Marie Détailleur died in Normandy on October 18, 1810. His address in Paris then was n° 178 rue St. Jacques in the 11th arrondisement. Détailleur died without leaving any heirs. (Archives Nationales, Notaire Trubert, MC/ET/XLII/746)
In early 1791, the Hôtel de Longueville was still in the hands of the fermiers de tabac, the association of individuals who imported, manufactured, sold, and taxed tobacco products for the crown as a royal monopoly. The national government was already planning to end the monopoly, however, hoping, in part, that a free market would promote the production and consumption of tobacco grown in France. In March of 1791 the government voted to end the royal monopoly.
As we discussed in earlier issues, individuals long involved with the royal tobacco monopoly were keen to profit from this new landscape (Huber; Phelippon Tobacco). Pierre Antoine Robillard, brother-in-law to Théodore Géricault’s maternal grandmother, and his nephew Jacques Florent Robillard were two such individuals hoping to profit from this change. The royal monopoly had been an immense enterprise employing ten thousand people. The story of Jean Marie Détailleur and the Robillard tobacco concern at the Hôtel de Longueville therefore must be considered within this larger context.
1792 Verniquet Map Tuileries (detail ) courtesy of David Rumsey Maps.
1791 Détailleur Lease
The official account of how Jean Marie Détailleur came to be awarded the 9-year lease for the Hôtel de Longueville is found in a document produced by Nicolas Jean Lardin titled: hôtel de Longueville – le ferme générale – jouissance du 1er 8bre 1791, Bail de 9 années in the Archives de Paris (D. Q10 342).
Subsequent to the dissolution of the royal tobacco in March, 1791, the national assembly debated what to do with state property in the capital. The decision to retain ownership of the Hôtel de Longueville and rent out the property was taken in June, 1791.* The municipal authorities in Paris tasked Lardin and Jean Nicolas Fallet, the commissaires responsible for biens nationaux, with organizing an enchère, or auction, after which the lease for the Hôtel de Longueville would be awarded on September 15, 1791.
Jean Marie Détailleur’s offer of 46,3oo livres per year was the high bid. Four days later, on September 19, Détailleur signed the lease with the municipal authorities and was awarded control of the Hôtel de Longueville for nine years, starting on October 1, 1791.
On September 23, 1791, Détailleur and Jacques Florent Robillard entrepreneur de la Manufacture de Tabac signed their lease. On October 6, 1791, Détailleur signed his lease with Thomas Brunton, anglais. On October 12, 1791, Détailleur signed his lease with Jean Pierre Poisson, Marchand Limonadier and his wife Adelaide Vouté. On November 23, 1791, Détailleur signed his lease with restaurateur Richard Martin and Martin’s assistant Robert Crammond.
We will examine Détailleur’s September 15, 1791 lease and others in greater detail elsewhere.
* “Rapport du Comité d’Emplacement, Sur la destination des édifices publics de Paris” pp. 574-587, Procès-Verbal de l’Assemblée Nationale, Imprimé par Son Ordre, Seizième Livraison, Tome 74 Chez Baudouin).
Plan of the ground floor of the Hôtel de Longueville (western section) in 1793 – tobacco manufactory in red. Image courtesy of the Archives Nationales (France), 1793 Sept. 5, Citoyen Détailleur au Citoyen Robillard Bail à Loyer, MC/ET/XCVI/565 Notaire Doillot