The story of the excellent litho stones from the French quarry of Maurice Dumas (MD).(written by Hugo Bos)
In the 19th century people started excavating litho stones in the south of France. Geologists had found excellent sedimentary grey lime stone in an area called "le Vigan". This stone was practically free from inclosures, quarts and other irregularities.
This quarry gave work to local farmers who had sometimes not enough work on their farms and hired themselves out to the companies involved with litho stones. Extracting litho stones is a very hard and difficult job. The material is found in layers of lime stone of appr. 10-15cm thick. Meters of debris had to be taken off before the good layers were reached. Very carefully the slabs of stone had to be examined for cracks and other faults. With much manpower a slab is lifted an brought down into the valley. In the valley the stones were cut to the right size and polished. In the process it was normal that 90% of the stones taken from the quarry ended as waste.
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In the old days Solnhofen in Bavaria (Germany) was known because of its lithostones. The majority of stones taken from Solnhofen were hard yellow and not grey. Grey stones are very rare in Sollenhofen. When I was in Sollenhofen in 1992 they showed me the last grey stones that they had taken from the quarry (stones of size 60x80cm). Probably they have found a few more since then, but not many. On this list you see the name "G.KAMMERER" as the name of the quarry owner in Le Vigan. This name figures also on another price list with litho stones from Bavaria "J & W. ARAUNER & KAMMERER, SOLNHOFEN". There is reason to believe that in the beginning of the 20th century this company "KAMMERER" had interests both in Solnhofen' and French quarries. It is even suggested that this KAMMERER took French grey stones to Solnhofen and sold them there as Solnhofen stones (because of the reputation of the Bavarian quarry).
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The demand for litho stones declined after the second world war and consequently the French quarry was closed. In the 1960's and 70's artists began to rediscover the art of lithography and this gave a new demand for litho stones, especially the bigger sizes. Stones became rare. After the second world war, many stones were thrown away or used to make pavements. The soft ground of Schiphol Airport was covered with litho stones to make decent runways possible. Stones were used to fill up canals in Holland. Some people in the south of France remembered the quarries of before the war, and wondered if it was possible to re-open them. Maurice Dumas, a stone mason in the area, was asked if he thought he was able to do something in this field. Maurice got curious and did some research about the subject and about lithography in general. Via some detours (Robbert de Bakker, Jean Pierre Orhant) Polymetaal was approached to become involved in the sale and distribution of the litho stones. Polymetaal bought in those years, in cooperation with van der Linde (a Dutch art supplier), a stock of stones. The sale of litho stones is for every company in this trade a marginal affair. With the development of our website and the possibilities that this offers we hope to generate more traffic of litho stones around the world. All stones that come from Maurice's quarry are first class, grey stones, surfaces polished, without inclusions, quartz and other faults. If requested we are happy to send to you a sample of this stone. Normally the stones are cut in a few standard sizes. These sizes are copied from the sizes as they used to be in the early days of the quarry. Special sizes are possible, but count at a considerable delay. Only two or three times a year people go into the quarry to get stones out. In Maurice's workshop these stones must be selected, cut, if necessary laminated, and finished. This whole procedure takes a few months. Sometimes the right stones for a special size can be found, and sometimes not.
There were in France in the beginning of the 90's other initiatives to produce litho stones. One initiative that I know of is the "GLOUP". GLOUP stands for "Groupement de Lithographes Oeuvrant pour l'Utilisation de la Pierre". This group of artists and lithographers has indeed produced some lithographic stones, (taken from another old quarry called "La carrière des euzes a gornies (herault))". The quality of these stones however is inferior compared to the stones of Maurice Dumas. Probably because Gloup was a group of professional artists and amateur stone masons, with Maurice Dumas it was the other way around. Polymetaal has acquired some stones from this Gloup initiative, they are indicated with "GL". This initiative was mainly the idea of Luc Valdelièvre, a professional lithographer (owner of lithographic workshop "Pouce Caillou" in Rocquefort des Corbières). Unfortunately he passed away in the year 2000.
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