100elles-20190607 Place Elisabeth Baulacre - Place de la Fusterie 162108

Elisabeth Baulacre (1613–1693), was a

Genevan Geneva ( , ; ) ; ; . is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland and the most populous in French-speaking Romandy. Situated in the southwest of the country, where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, it is the ca ...

businessperson. From 1641 onward, when her first husband Pierre Perdriau died, she developed and managed the manufacture of

passementerie Passementerie (, ) or passementarie is the art of making elaborate trimmings or edgings (in French, ) of applied braid, gold or silver cord, embroidery, colored silk, or beads for clothing or furnishings. Styles of passementerie include the tass ...

she inherited from him, and more specifically the silver and gold threads business which was needed for the passementerie. According to the 17th-century historian

Gregorio Leti Gregorio Leti (29 May 1630 – 9 June 1701) was an Italian historian and satirist from Milan, who sometimes published under the pseudonym Abbe Gualdi, L'abbé Gualdi, or Gualdus known for his works about the Catholic Church, especially the papa ...

she employed 1200 salaried workers, who tailored for her at their own homes. She also sponsored the long apprenticeship of

goldbeating upA gold nugget of 5 mm (0.2 in) in diameter (bottom) can be expanded through hammering into a gold foil of about 0.5 m2 (5.4 sq ft). The Japan.html" ;"title="Toi gold mine museum, Japan">Toi gold mine museum, Japan. Gold leaf is gold that has ...

(five to six years) of several young craftsmen, in order to secure the gold threads she needed for her trade. Her business became the most important one in Geneva in 1680, and remained thus until 1708. She died with the second largest personal fortune in Geneva. She also had the reputation of being a "

syndic ''Syndic'' (; Greek: ) is a term applied in certain countries to an officer of government with varying powers, and secondly to a representative or delegate of a university, institution or other corporation, entrusted with special functions or p ...

s maker".History
of the

Vuache The Vuache is a range of hills in eastern France, close to the border with Switzerland (the nearest city is in fact Geneva). To the north lies the Jura and to the south the Alps. At their northern end, the hills drop steeply down to the River Rh ...

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