Mysteries

Mystery: Jacquotot-Allez Frères?

VFC

VFC


What’s going on with this overstamp?

Mystery: Jacquotot-Allez Freres?

 

Reader Greg M. caught this listing in early June 2020 on leboncoin.fr and grabbed a photo of it. It looks like a faint Allez Frères stamp overstamped with a Jacquotot stamp:

 

But the thing is, the pan does not have the right handle. Allez Frères was one of the Parisian department stores that commissioned a custom handle design, and here’s what it looks like. You can see that the baseplate has the same trefoil shape whether in iron or brass.

 

As far as I can tell from online documents, Allez Frères offered this line of copper from 1873 to 1908. The 128-130 Rue de Grenelle version of the Jacquotot stamp came into use around 1922 when the store expanded. I don’t know exactly when the shop moved to Rue Damesme so I don’t know for how long they kept using this stamp.

What’s going on here? My first thought was a customer turn-in. TJFRANCE has mentioned that some of the makers offered échange de vieille batterie — a customer could exchange old copper for new pieces at a discount. Could this pan be an old Allez Frères that a customer brought in to exchange for new Jacquotot, and Jacquotot simply re-stamped and resold it?

But if so, what happened to that distinctive Allez Frères handle? Its rivet holes are in a different configuration from the holes in the handle it has now. Unfortunately we only have the single photo of the Jacquotot-Allez Frères pan and I can’t see if the inside of the pan shows evidence that it had ever been drilled for the triangular configuration for this baseplate. But even if that were the case, please look below at the mounting of the handle on the Allez-Jacquotot pan next to the mounting on the Allez Frères pan, and specifically how high the side rivets are set. The oblong baseplate is set pretty low on the pan — I think we’d be able to see a filled hole peeking out above the handle if it had been replaced.

 

Another possibility is that Jacquotot bought up some stamped but as-yet un-drilled pan bodies from Allez Frère’s supplier. The only problem here is the time lag: the last listing I could find for Allez Frères cookware was in 1908, but Jacquotot did not move to 128 & 130 Rue de Grenelle until 1922. Would a supplier sit on a stash of unused copper for more than a decade?

What do you guys think? I wish I’d gone and looked more closely at the listing on leboncoin.fr when it was still up. Did anyone else get a good look at it?

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8 Comments

  1. Your reader has the eyes of an eagle! My guess is that Jacquotot was an OEM supplier to Allez Frères in the 1920’s. The Allez Frères hallmark may have been struck over the Jacquotot hallmark for resale in the Parisian department story. Or, alternately, this sauté was inventory made for, but not purchased by, Allez Frères or possibly overstock or a return. In this case, Jacquotot saw fit to apply his hallmark to resell under his own name. A better picture to analyze and determine which hallmark came first would help solve solve the mystery.

    1. Hey Val! I am hoping readers saw this listing and grabbed more detail on it while it was still up!

  2. I do believe this is a Jacquotot pan that was offered for sale by the Allez Freres store some time after they had stopped supplying their own distinctive copperware. The stamping showing the Jacquotot stamped over (under?) the Allez Freres stamp is seen in a similar stamping on my 40 cm Jacquotot saute posted on this forum where the Jacquotot is stamped over the Blaser store stamp where presumably the pan was sold. why were the stampings done this way rather than showing two separate stamps? Another Jacquotot mystery.

    1. Hey Stephen! Thank you for reminding me of your Jacquotot-Blaser pan — indeed, another piece in the puzzle. As regards this pan’s stamp, I wish I could establish for how long Allez Freres sold copper cookware. The last catalog I see with copper cookware in it is 1908; the 1910 and 1913 catalogs have aluminum, nickel, and enameled cast iron, but no copper at all. The next catalog I can find is for 1930 and the only copper items are a jam pan and skimmer. Does anyone have information about copper at Allez Freres in the 1910s and 1920s?

  3. Hello all !
    The great-grandfather of JACQUOTOT were certainly a baby when the establishments ALLEZ FRERES already existed in the hardware trade.
    ALLEZ FRERES offers a huge amount of products, but heating, stoves and other large items are certainly what earns the most money.
    Obviously, they offer all types of casseroles in all types of materials.
    If certain catalogs do not show copper pots, that does not mean that they did not offer them.
    A customer wishing to make a single order in a single store could quite ask to also receive products outside the catalog.
    Imagine that you are going to ALLEZ FRERES for your new home. You need all kinds of things. You are ready to place a large order.

    You can imagine that a house like ALLEZ FRERES would not risk losing an order on the pretext that they did not have such and such a product. They knew where to find all the products likely to be requested by any customer.

    Copper pans have become the most complicated and expensive to manufacture over time. I mean in comparison to beaten iron, aluminum and other materials very easy to work, pack and transport.

    Many hardware stores no longer offer copper at one time. Because of stock market fluctuations, storage and oxidation and all the other constraints related to copper.

    Copper pots will go through several stages over the decades. On sale for individuals and professionals, then only for professionals, then again for the general public, etc.
    At each of these stages we find different qualities.
    A house like DEHILLERIN can cover all the needs for copper pots because it is their business to supply the professionals. A house like ALLEZ FRERES (after 1900) does not need to do this because its customers are mainly individuals.

    The only right that JACQUOTOT would have allowed himself by stamping above ALLEZ FRERES is that ALLEZ FRERES asked JACQUOTOT to supply him with copper pots.
    In this example, we can easily imagine that JACQUOTOT stamped pots for ALLEZ FRERES but did not deliver all of these pots to ALLEZ FRERES.
    Because of this, he certainly reused these pots for himself by stamping his name on them.

    It’s fun because it makes me think that nowadays you can find in supermarkets, clothes of big brands (which we generally find only in specialized shops). Often with models or collections reserved for supermarkets. This is valid for sports shoes.
    This type of partnership has always existed.

    JACQUOTOT has left traces of its different partnerships with DEHILLERIN, BLASER, le BON MARCHE and certainly others to discover.

    Regards, T.J.

    1. TJ, your explanation makes sense. Thank you, as always, for helping us understand the industry at that time!

  4. TJ, thank you for directing our eyes beyond the edge of the pan to the entire business scene, the conceivable cooperation between manufacturers and retail stores, wholesale and their business practices.

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