This book is an English translation of Élizabeth Lebon's Dictionnaire des fondeurs de bronze d'art: France 1890–1950, published in 2003 this thorough study has since become an essential reference work on nineteenth and twentieth century French bronze sculpture, and the provision of an English translation is a tremendous service to the field. Lebon presents a fascinating account of the complex and often murky world of bronze casting – a world inherently tied up with problems of reproductions, editions, copies, and fakes. Laws, codes of practice, numbering systems, signatures, and foundry marks, were just some of the ways in which the market sought to protect itself. Copyright was fiercely protected. Large firms pursued ‘pillagers’ (meaning plagiarists) who copied their models and undercut prices. Legal actions were launched against shops that distributed surmoulages (casts from casts). Anti-copying devices were devised, such as inserting brass wires and sticks into the joints of plaster moulds so they could not be newly cut for copying. But bronze sculpture also suffers from an inbuilt contradiction. Since a bronze is inherently a reproductive object, defining an ‘original’ has long been a point of contention. Lebon reproduces a code of practice dated 1993 which underlines the conundrum: a bronze may be called ‘original’ if less than twelve casts are made, numbered in Arabic numerals; of these, four may be called ‘artists’ proofs’, to be distinguished by Roman numerals. If more than twelve casts are to be made, these must be called ‘multiples’, and none, not even the first twelve, may be called ‘originals’ or ‘proofs’. There is no apparent logic here other than a market-driven compromise.

For Lebon, quantity is the key factor that distinguishes ‘art founders’ (who restrict their output to a limited number of casts from any one model) from ‘éditeurs’ and ‘manufacturers’ (who produce casts in unlimited numbers). The éditeurs were phenomenally successful in the nineteenth century: the number of workers employed by the industry rose from 840 in 1827 to 7,500 in 1878. As Lebon sees it, the very success of the éditeurs heralded their inevitable decline, resulting in ‘a saturated market’, full of ‘repetitive bronzes’, that were ‘often mediocre or worse’. But it is clear that repetition and mediocrity were not the sole or even decisive causes of the decline. As Lebon recognizes, the pressures on the industry were immense. The ‘modern way of life’ brought in clutter-free interiors, as well as electricity and central heating, reducing the demand for candlesticks, fireplace ornaments and the like. During the war, the use of bronze became severely restricted, and in the post-war period there was a general economic depression that played a significant part in the fortunes of bronze production. The price of a ton of bronze rose from 2,650 francs in 1936 to an astonishing 64,000 in 1937. Foundries were wracked by strikes as workers demanded better working conditions, further driving down profit margins. Given these difficult circumstances, Lebon's conclusion that taste, discrimination and integrity determined founders' success or failure seems somewhat reductive. She suggests that a business like Barbedienne was bound to fail because the name ‘was too strongly attached to mass production’. Susse, in contrast, only survived because he could ‘distance himself from his image as an éditeur’. But there is enough information here for the reader to fill in the gaps, and arrive at a more convincing historical picture of the rise and fall of the art bronze industry.

Lebon's dictionary entries are a treasure-trove of information, and compelling to read. While focused on the period 1890–1950, the book presents much detailed information beyond these dates since full histories of the foundries are given, many of which began much earlier in the nineteenth century and several lasted longer than 1950. The large French foundries – such as Barbedienne, Susse, Thiebaut – are described alongside the obscure ones, shedding much new light on the history of the subject. It quickly emerges that in the early days, it was the foundries that controlled the nature of the relationship with artists rather than vice versa. In the nineteenth century, the Réunion des Fabricants de Bronze, although small (Lebon cites ten members), established codes of conduct and standardized business dealings between producers and artists. Sample contracts published by the Réunion were widely adopted by the industry for transferring complete ownership of models with their copyright from artist to producer. Unsurprisingly, the deals were more often favourable to producers than sculptors – Hebrard was not alone in binding his artists to ‘draconian contracts at a low price’. Bronze éditeurs represented a new income stream for artists, which also led to dependency, often weighted against the sculptors. Producers suggested easily marketable subjects to their artists, sometimes shaping careers in the process – some sculptors became ‘industrial artists’ who worked exclusively for manufacturers, and became specialized in particular subjects, such as animals or children. A complex picture emerges, which serves as a useful reminder that art history is shaped not only by artists but by economic and cultural circumstances.

While Lebon has provided a handy alphabetical reference work, the Dictionary is also pleasurable and compelling to read as a narrative. It is particularly interesting to consider the large, powerful foundries next to the smaller, experimental ones. The little-known founder Bingen was encouraged by artists, suggesting a different kind of relationship. Despite Bingen's modest means and lack of experience, Jules Dalou entrusted him with his enormous monument The Triumph of the Republic. Bingen was unable to cope, lacking the necessary capital and manpower – nine years on he had cast no more than a handful of minor elements. He finally lost the commission to the large founder Thiébaut, who completed the project in 1899, almost two decades after the initial commission. This poignant story shows the ad hoc nature of small foundries, which worked piece by piece, and struggled to compete with the streamlined systems and facilities that large founders were able to offer up front.

The fascinating details strewn throughout the Dictionary have been painstakingly assembled over years from a wide range of sources. For example, Lebon cites a Land Registry inspector's report compiled for tax purposes, which contains a full inventory of E. Gruet Jeune's foundry equipment. This early pioneer of lost-wax casting owned a 10,000 kilo bridge crane, 30 large and 16 small new cast-iron pointing machines for sand-casting; a reverbatory furnace; six crucible furnaces; 12 plumbago crucibles; a twin drying stove with a wagon; a mobile weighting machine; 10 meters of track with revolving plates, as well as wagons and an array of smaller hand tools. The inventory, which points to Gruet's business success, tells us much about the inside of a late nineteenth century art foundry, information that is otherwise hard to come by.

Readers should note that this book is not a stand-alone publication but a companion to the French Dictionnaire. Only the principal texts have been translated: the introductory essay and the dictionary entries. Omitted are the illustrations, foundry marks, lists of artists, and bibliographic references which appear in the French Dictionnaire. This means that the reader needs to shuttle back and forth between the two volumes to fill in the gaps – for example, the short-form references that appear in the English footnotes are given in full only in the French volume, which has a general bibliography at the back. Similarly, to determine which artists a particular foundry was associated with, readers need to refer to the corresponding entry in the French volume, where we also find lists of archival sources and bibliographic references. All of this explains why the words ‘English Translation’ are emblazoned in large capitals on the front of the Dictionary. Clearly the publisher wanted to be upfront about its perfunctory nature. It must be admitted that these decisions make the reading-experience somewhat cumbersome and frustrating.

The translated text would have benefited from tighter editing to iron out some oddities of language. In the introductory section dealing with the casting process I found myself going back to the French text to check the technical terms. For example, modèle en cire is translated as ‘a wax pattern’, when ‘wax model’ would have been more appropriate (the word ‘pattern’ is used in foundries today but is more closely associated with industrial uses rather than sculptural ones). I would have welcomed the French terms being given in brackets, so as to allow the reader to see the use of technical terms that are specific to a particular language. Moreover, given the richness of the information, the remarkable cross-references between and amongst the businesses, their techniques, and the artists they worked with, one wishes that the project could be transferred to a digital platform, which would greatly expand its potential. This is not intended as a criticism of Lebon or the publisher – straightforward book publishing continues to present an easier option for scholars and publishers alike. One hopes that in the near future discrete projects such as this can be more easily folded into digital formats, enabling cross-searching and linked data.