Guillaume Massicot
Inventor of the Paper Cutter

The paper cutter was invented by Guillaume Massicot in 1840. Guillaume was born on September 5, 1797 in Indre, Issoudun, the province of Barry France. This is near Bourges. You can see Barry near the center of the map below. The paper cutter was patented on March 18, 1844. Large benefactor of the fabric and leather, paper cutters. The Massicot forms part of the tools of the printer, the bookbinder. One knows few things about him. He left Issoudun at 16 years, and, after his return to France, he was an established cutter in Bourges, then in Paris in 1840. It is there that he would have improved the paper cutter which bears his name today. He passed away in 1870. The photo below is of an artist, David Orange and one of his Massicot paper cutters. He is an artist in France that is creating his art the old fashioned way.

The photo below is taken from the paper museum Le Moulin de La Tourne in France that displays an antique Massicot paper cutter along with other machines that are in the paper industry. There are other paper museums throughout Europe that also contain antique Massicot paper cutter. Another museum that I know of is in Switzerland named Basler Paper Museum.

The photo below is one of the latest versions of a paper cutting machine with the patented Massicot paper cutter.

The newsletter "Le Massicot" is named after this famous inventor as well as Jacques Massicot!