Maison Bertin Frères
The shop Au Départ located Boulevard de Denain was acquired in 1871 by two brothers, Ernest (born in 1846) and Paul Bertin (born in 1854).[2] Originally from the village of Daulaincourt in Haute-Marne, they had started by selling haberdashery on the Saint-Quentin market. They established the Maison Bertin Frères in 1871.
The boutique on Boulevard de Denain specialised in guns, ammunitions, travel, as well as hunting and fishing goods. Their travel section displayed many different types of trunks (namely postal trunks, rounded trunks, canteen trunks, wicker trunks, flat trunks, wooden trunks covered in a brown canvas, "anglaises" trunks made out of wicker and covered in leather, automobile trunks, etc.), leather suitcases, handbags and stocked vanity cases.[3]
The Bertin Frères business flourished and a second shop, trading under Au Départ, was opened in Paris at 29, Avenue de l'Opéra in 1874. The boutique specialised in travel accessories and leather goods produced in the Belleville, Belleville workshops managed by the Bertin brothers. The brothers invented several related techniques which they were to patent, namely a new production technique for trunks[4] and a new process to render hides and leather products completely waterproof.[5]
