Fouquet

The Fouquet company had a long history and was founded in 1834¹. The company was first mentioned as a manufacturer of stereoscopes in 1873². The business activities were managed by Jean Baptiste Fouquet (1849–1887), and the firm was located at 246, rue Saint-Maur in Paris³. In the same year, Fouquet patented an extension of the English-style Graphoscope. The design provided stereo lenses with a closed box, improving the viewing experience for stereoviews⁴.

In 1875, the company had moved to 119, rue Oberkampf and entered into two collaborations. In 1876, the company was listed as Fouquet, Bénier et Cie⁵ and from 1877 to 1879 as Fouquet et Guétant⁶. The collaborations were short lived and the company continued as J.B. Fouquet afterwards.

A third relocation of the firm followed in 1885, this time it moved to 99, rue Saint-Maur. Two years later, Jean Baptiste died on 13 March 1887. This was not the end of the company as the business activities were continued by his widow, Eugénie Grace Hubert (1855–1906). She was of English origin, and advertisements and catalogues mentioned “English spoken” as distinctive customer service. References in commercial registers were provided with the abbreviation Vve, meaning “Veuve” (widow). Eugénie Grace ran the company with her first son Henri Albert Fouquet (1874–1908), who was therefore exempted from military service⁷.

Fouquet was a leading manufacturer of stereoscopes. In 1890, the company had 30 employees, and their products were exported abroad⁹. More company relocations followed, and the firm was based at 47, rue Oberkampf from 1891, at 19, Pierre-Levée from 1896 and at 40, rue Claude-Vellefaux from c. 1905. Eugénie Grace died in 1906. The company was briefly continued by Henri Albert but, like his father, he also died at a young age in 1908. The company was sold to Mattey in the same year¹⁰.

References

1. Annuaire-almanach du commerce, de l’industrie, de la magistrature et de l’administration, p. 2086.  (1891). Via: gallica.bnf.fr ↩︎
2. Annuaire-almanach du commerce, de l’industrie, de la magistrature et de l’administration, p. 1321 (1873). Via: gallica.bnf.fr ↩︎
3. Ibid ↩︎
4. Fouquet, J.B. (1873) Instrument dit stéréoscope-monocle. Via: archives.inpi.fr ↩︎
5. Annuaire-almanach du commerce, de l’industrie, de la magistrature et de l’administration (1876), P. 1442. Via: gallica.bnf.fr ↩︎
6. Annuaire-almanach du commerce, de l’industrie, de la magistrature et de l’administration (1877), P. 1441. Via: gallica.bnf.fr ↩︎
7. Military record of Henri Albert Fouquet, Registres matricules du recrutement (1887-1921). Via: archives.paris.fr ↩︎
8. Fouquet, F. Jean Baptiste Fouquet. Via: geneanet.org ↩︎
9. Le Panthéon de l’industrie (1890), p. 134. Via: gallica.bnf.fr ↩︎
10. Archives commerciales de la France  (14-10-1908), p. 1317. Via: gallica.bnf.fr ↩︎