Christophe-Philippe Oberkampf
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Christophe-Philippe Oberkampf (11 June 1738 - 6 October 1815) was a French naturalized German industrialist. He became famous for founding the royal manufacture of printed cottons of Jouy-en-Josas where the toile de Jouy was manufactured.
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[edit] Biography
Oberkampf was born in Wiesenbach [1], Germany in a family of dyers. He traveled to educate himself and initially worked in Mulhouse as an engraver, then from October 1758 in Paris as a colourist.
In 1759, Oberkampf proposed a partnership with the Swiss for the creation of a manufacture of printed cottons engraved wood boards in Jouy-in-Josas. The first fabrics were successfully printed in May 1760. In 1764, Oberkampf increased his factory on a vast ground of 18.000 m². The manpower of the manufacture grew quickly and reached 900 workmen in 1774.
In 1770, Oberkampf who was justifying ten years of residence in France, is naturalized French with his brother. Around this period, an important technical evolution enabled his company to considerably increase its production: the wood boards are replaced by copper plates, also engraved but flexible and which could be fixed on cylindrical drums. The company entered the mechanization era.
In 1783, the factory received from the king Louis XVI the title of "royal manufacture" and in 1787, Oberkampf received from the king the title of squire as well as the right to use arms and his device "Recte et vigilanter (uprightness and vigilance)".
On February 7, 1790, the reforms of the French Revolution led him to be appointed mayor of Jouy-en-Josas. In 1794 his daughter Émilie was born. Influenced by the British Infant Schools, she would become the pioneer of the nursery school.
The manufacture remained flourishing during the Revolution and became the second company of the kingdom after the mirror manufacture of Saint-Gobain. In 1799, sales declined and the manpower - which had reached 2.000 ouviers - was reduced.
In 1806, Oberkampf obtained the gold medal at the industrial fair of the Louvre for its eminent role in the manufacture of painted Toiles. In June 20, 1806, after visiting the workshops, Napoleon, awarded him the legion of honor.
Decrease in the demand and competition got more insistent. In 1815, manpower fell to 435, and the manufacture was closed during the invasion of the armies united against the Emperor.[2]
When Oberkampf died in 1815 in Jouy-en-Josas(today in Yvelines)), his son Emile succeeded him at the head of the manufacture. Taken over by Jacques-Juste Barbet de Jouy in 1822, it finally went bankrupt in 1843. Oberkampf was buried in the garden of his house, which became today the Music academy of Jouy-in-Josas.
Its name was given to a street in XIth district of Paris, and to the subway station that serves it.
[edit] Read also
- Stanley D Chapman; Serge Chassagne ; European textile printers in the eighteenth century : a study of Peel and Oberkampf ; London : Heinemann Educational : Pasold Fund, 1981. OCLC 8500406
- Josette Brédif; Musée Oberkampf ; Christophe-Philippe Oberkampf et le manufacture de Jouy-en-Josas : historique. ; Jouy-en-Josas, France : Musée Oberkampf, 1987. OCLC 34521962
[edit] Notes
- ^ Today this village is part of the town of Blaufelden in the district of Schwäbisch Hall of the state of Bade-Wurtemberg: see Blaufelden on German Wikipedia.
- ^ Artist Summary. Retrieved on 2007-04-16.
[edit] External links
| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| NAME | Oberkampf, Christophe-Philippe |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | |
| SHORT DESCRIPTION | French businessman |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 11 June 1738 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Wiesenbach near Blaufelden |
| DATE OF DEATH | 6 October 1815 |
| PLACE OF DEATH | Jouy-en-Josas |
