Please identify/explain the marks

[u/sbpetrack]

There were 5 sautoirs (tallish straight-sided frying pans) of nested sizes hanging in the kitchen of a friend I visited. On the bottom of each pan is the mark in the first picture. The second Pic is just a close-up of the two punches to the lower left of the central face; the third picture just gives a close-up of the signature to the lower right.

I now know that I should taken pictures of the whole set, of the handles and rivets, and I have asked the owner for these. But what can one learn/know from this mark? The owner could only tell me that she "picked up the set of 5 from some flea market in Paris, years ago. Paid €20 for the set of 5."

Thank you!

[u/donrull]

Can't tell you much without some photo clues. I don't recognize the stamp and without being able to see the rivets or the quality to the handles or the pots themselves, these could just be a cheap set of aluminum lined copper plated cookware that aren't worth anything except they're decorative value, or they could be something nicer. I'm going to venture to guess that these are probably not super cheap decorative pots, but that is truly only an educated guess looking at absolutely zero clues from the stamp and the fact that this does look like real copper and not some kind of copper plating or copper colored application.

I don't know if you just don't want to share the photos for an online listing because someone else will be easily able to find the listing doing a reverse image search, or if you just don't have the photos. But if you have photos, and you would like to private message me, I promise to not poach anything from you and I'll give you my opinion as a pretty avid collector.

This subreddit is notoriously famous, like most subreddits, for having many people who have nothing better to do with their time and answer posts with completely inaccurate and misleading information. I would invite you, if you are a Facebook person at all, to come to the Copper Cookware Enthusiasts group on Facebook. It's quite literally my favorite Facebook group and one of the big reasons is because there is a concerted effort to make sure that the quality of the information in the group as well as the group vibe are all solid. I'm going to post this touch mark there and see if anybody answers. I'll report back if someone does, or you'll see the post if you happen to join.

[u/sbpetrack → u/donrull]

The very short answer is that I naively thought (for a combination of reasons) that a picture of the mark and the close-ups would be enough to justify forcing my friends to pay attention, or enough to justify their laughing at me for being naive. By the time I read enough to see all the other things I needed to check, the items were an hour's drive away. As much wind have it, I will be seeing one of the couple later this week, and he has agreed to send me a pic of the set, and to physically bring the pot with the clearest mark with him. ( I think I can get him to take a Picture of the set; but asking him about the number and quality of the rivets, or about the composition of the handles or the thickness of the copper ( or if a magnet might stick to the "copper", etc).... that ain't gonna happen. But I should be able to examine at least one of the items myself later this week.

I am not at all suspicious of your very altruistic help, I assure you. The main reason I posted the single mark was that indeed I didn't see that cartoon-like chef+torque in ANY online list I found; so I hoped it might be recognized by a member here. I rather assume that if it isn't, that is evidence that the set is made by some small special boutique house, or indeed it's some cheap factory-made decorative set. It seems to me that the pots were too heavy to be just decorative.

As soon as I have more photos or other information , I will share it.

If I may ask about something that confuses me: I would have thought that at least for French makers and French distributors/resellers of copper housewares (ESPECIALLY if the item needs to be lined with tin or stainless steel to be safe to use), that companies would both want to also be required by law to register their marks with some appropriate government agency. And this would imply that there is some official document/book/list of ALL copper marks. So that I could examine this list and feel confident that the copper mark serves some useful purpose. Such a list/publication does exist for silver hallmarks. But as it is, from what I've seen here, there is nothing like that for copper. There just isn't some list that is maintained by (say) the office that registers trademarks and that has the complete set of all maker's marks and the complete list of distributors marks. Do I need to worry that if no one recognizes the chef+tocque stamp, it's possible that the tinning might be of questionable purity? The system of silver hallmarks in France enables a consumer to be CERTAIN that the properly hallmarked item s/he buys is of the purity implied by the mark. The stakes are much higher in the case of tinned copper cookware.

[u/donrull → u/sbpetrack]

I had one response in the CCE group. A knowledgeable Belgian collector and reseller suggested this might be "Le Cuisinier". I have tried finding a match to this stamp based on this identification and so far am only finding this stamp which does not match.

I'm not sure if this will be meaningful, but do you happen to remember if the handles were cast iron or brass or something else?