So I know a bit, but far from everything, about the guy in question. Henri Gérin was born on May 31, 1844 in Chalons sur Saôn in eastern France and died in Paris on October 7, 1918. His parents were Claude Gérin and Louisa Avignon; Henri had a number of siblings but I never cared deeply enough to determine if his father or brothers were involved in the pipe business too (for various reasons I doubt it). In any case Gérin migrated northwest to Paris as a young man about 1866 and started appearing in business directories as a pipe maker a few years later. Certainly by 1870 Gérin was listed at blvd de Strasbourg 46; he later moved the business several times, and eventually wound up back on Strasbourg at #39. Gérin's primary focus was manufacturing for the wholesale trade. By 1871 Henri had established a joint venture with Lichtblau at Rue de Lancry 17, while continuing to maintain his own premises under the name H. Gérin on Strasbourg blvd. The partnership with Lichtblau doesn't appear to have lasted very long. By 1876 it disappears from the directory, while Gérin's solo listing continued. Some twenty years later, in 1895 or 1896, Henri formed a second partnership, this one with a man named Fœgly. The venture was styled Gérin (H.) and Fœgly, and located at blvd Magenta 3. This latest partnership lasted a bit over a decade before ending about 1908. By this point Gérin was in his sixties but continued to soldier on for another decade until his death in 1918. Whether his only son, Henri Ferdinand Gérin (1866-1917), was involved in the business or not is unknown to me but in any case moot since he preceded his father in death by some 19 months. Records for Europe from the time of the First World War can be tough to find. What's certain is that the business was still in family hands in 1914 at the start of the war, and that by the end of the war this was no longer the case. In the first directory issued after Gérin's death the 1918 listing shows Gérin (H.) is still in business but at a new location (rue Béranger 19) and under a new owner (
A. Mathiss, successeur).
So a few observations. First, assuming that Gérin was responsible for the Barclay pipes we're discussing it's clear that he never emigrated from France to the United States, nor did his son. For that matter both were dead by the time H.G.P. pipes appeared at Barclay in New York anyway. Second, I'm not sure I understand why we need to assume that someone had to emigrate; pipe manufacturers in Europe, just like in America, made private label pipes for tobacconists every day and shipped them all over the world. It was an important part of the pipe and pipe tobacco trade. If these pipes
were made by Gérin's former company they would have been made by Mathiss since the founder and his son were busy being dead . I should add that Mathiss stopped using the Gérin name in industry directories about 1924.
Finally, it's far from clear to me that HGP pipes were made by Gérin's former company at all. Yes, I know that the Gérin logo was in an oval (see listing below) but the pipe world is replete with logos using an oval. Sure HGP could stand for something like Henri Gérin of Paris, but it certainly doesn't have too. It seems like an odd choice for a tobacconist to make; why reference a foreign company in an obscure way? Anything is possible but I'd need more evidence than a dubious attribution on a Worthpoint listing pulled from an eBay sale. Is there something more compelling here that I'm missing? Are the pipes even marked made in France?
In any case this is the quick and dirty; enjoy!
