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Guest post: Jacquotot’s final days

VFC

VFC


“When you hold one in your hands you can see and feel the high quality of this cookware.”

VFC says: This post was written and photographed by Stephen Whalen.

I have to say I favor the Jacquotot brand among my collection of vintage copper pans. When you hold one in your hands you can see and feel the high quality of this cookware and know it ranks right up there with other great makes such as Gaillard and Dehillerin.

According to VFC’s Field Guide to Jacquotot, they started out in 1908 at 97 Rue de Grenelle in Paris and eventually ended up at 77 Rue Damesme. The French Kitchen Antiques site tells how in 1971 Carl Sontheimer, president of Cuisinart, visited the shop and found an elderly couple in charge of a much diminished enterprise.

A man who claimed to be the great-grandson of the founder, Jean-Baptiste Jacquotot, wrote to the French Kitchen Antiques site and stated that his mother closed the shop around the year 2000 due to much reduced demand of their products.

If the shop seemed to have a much reduced staff by 1971, how were they still able to offer copperware for sale? I believe the three saucepans I recently purchased, which were used in a restaurant in southern France, offer an answer to that.

VFC says: Since this guest post was written, Jean-Philippe Jacquotot-Carisé, grandson of Jean-Baptiste Jacquotot, has generously provided additional history about his family’s business to the Field guide to Jacquotot.

Guest post: Three late-era Jacquotot saucepans

Type Three tin-lined saucepans in hammered finish with cast iron handles attached with three copper rivets
French description Trois casseroles étamées et martelées avec queue fer munie de trois rivets en cuivre
Dimensions 14cm diameter by 8.2cm tall
(5.5 by 3.2 inches)
16cm diameter by 9.2cm tall
6.3 by 3.6 inches)
20cm diameter by 11.3cm tall
(7.9 by 4.4 inches)
Thickness 2.7mm 2.7mm 2.7mm
Weight 1400g
(3.1 lbs)
1780g
(3.9 lbs)
2630g
(5.8 lbs)
Stampings J. JACQUOTOT; MADE IN FRANCE
Maker and age estimate Likely Mauviel for Jacquotot; 1980s?
Source eBay
Owner Stephen Whalen

The eBay lot consisted of three saucepans measuring 14, 16 and 20 cm in diameter. The seller got them from his cousin when she closed her restaurant in southern France. She must have taken care of her cookware as these saucepans are in excellent shape despite being commercially used.

The stamps on these pans differed from other Jacquotot stamps in that they only included the name and deleted the address.

 

As the pans are identical to each other with the exception of the size rivets, the photos below are of the 16cm pan. The 16cm and 20cm pans use rivets marked 15. The 14cm uses rivets marked 3.

 

As VFC states in the Jacquotot field guide, the “MADE IN FRANCE” stamp on the pans was attributed to pans made by Mauviel. At this point I was thinking that these saucepans were actually made by Mauviel and were sold to Jacquotot who in turn sold it under their name. Where to find an answer to this mystery? I wrote to the expert TJFRANCE and, once again, he generously shared his knowledge with me.

Hello Steve, yes indeed, these are pots made by Mauviel for the JACQUOTOT house in the last period. Rare to find with this beautiful stamp… In general very good manufacturing, in the classic line that we know well.
Congratulations on this great acquisition!
Regards, T.J.


VFC says: Stephen, thanks so much for sharing these pans and looking into their manufacture — this is an era that’s been hard for me to research. I’m trying to fill in the history of the French copper industry in the 1970s and 1980s but there don’t seem to be many primary sources that I can find online. It seems that Mauviel was ascendent while Jacquotot and Gaillard were declining for reasons that I don’t yet understand. All I know is what I can observe: late-era Gaillard and Jacquotot — pieces  with “MADE IN FRANCE” stamped on them — look pretty much identical, and they both look like Mauviel. This is why it’s so helpful to hear from TJFRANCE that Jacquotot did indeed source copper from Mauviel towards the end of the company’s operations. My next goal is to figure out when Jacquotot made this change — there is always more to learn!

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1 Comments

  1. Beautiful plans. You are lucky to have these.i have a large amount of Mauviel, made in the 1960-70-early1980’s- and these look like mine.Too bad Mauviel isn’t what it used to be, for us traditionalists; but I guess they are doing what they view as necessary for survival.

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