Once "the premier source for copper pans in the city."
Born in Zurich in 1853, Charles Ruegger immigrated to the United States in 1874, according to www.14to42.net. In 1877 he opened a hardware and houseware business near Houston St.; a half-century later he moved the business, by then called Bazar Francais, to this pre-Civil War building on Sixth Ave. (The shallow cornice, dated 1929, was personalized after Ruegger bought the building; the white lettering was painted, at some point, on the building next door.)
In 1984, when Irene Sax wrote Cook's Marketplace: New York, the shop was still buying, repairing, and selling cookware, but no longer under Ruegger family ownership, and by appointment only. Bazar Francais seems to have shuttered entirely by the end of the 1980s.
Bazar Francais
Surviving signage at 666-8 Sixth Ave. (20th-21st Sts.)
Did they make pottery ware signed
CRR Cookware New York I found a large bean pot on a copper stand both with this New York marking
Posted by: Cece Horne | October 29, 2011 at 09:58 AM
To my knowledge, the shop bought, sold, and repaired but did not manufacture cookware.
Posted by: Dave Cook | October 29, 2011 at 11:41 AM
I have a Bazar Francais Chafing Burner, marked: Bazar Francais New York 666.
Anyone interested?
Posted by: jason | October 30, 2012 at 08:38 PM