This website is devoted to vintage French copper cookware because I love it. I collect and cook with vintage French copper and I created this website to celebrate it. This is my hobby, not a business — there are no ads, I don’t sell anything, and nobody pays me to do this. I simply love this stuff and I want to talk about it.
My goals are to share what I’ve learned and encourage you to collect and use your copper with confidence. When I became interested in vintage copper, I had to figure out what to buy on my own. Most “copper cookware” websites were trying to sell me something. Cooking forums offered some good insights, but also contained contradictory — and sometimes outright incorrect — information, and I didn’t know enough to tell the difference. I wanted to see vintage copper up close, learn about how it was made and who made it, and get advice on what to look for when buying it online, but such a place didn’t exist. So, I decided to make it. Welcome!
But I’m not always right. I’m an enthusiast, I like doing research, and I’m intellectually curious, but I’m not an expert — and definitely not perfect. I work diligently to research and document what I post, but if you have good information to refute or improve upon something I’ve said, I welcome it. I’m surprised the history of the vintage French copper cookware industry hasn’t been explored and documented already, so I’m doing the best I can, driven by genuine appreciation and attention to detail. (The only other resource I’ve found is oldcopper.org but their focus is Britain, not France.) I’d love your help and enthusiasm. Please comment on posts that interest you or email me at vintagefrenchcopper@gmail.com.
I’m also biased. I’m primarily a collector, and my enthusiasms and preferences tend toward heavier, more expensive copper cookware. There is a growing community of copper enthusiasts with different perspectives, I encourage you to learn from them, as I do. Start with the Copper Cookware sub-Reddit, a free online community with friendly moderators and an active and responsive readership.
This site is non-commercial. As I said above, there is no advertising here, and I do not tolerate anyone using my site to advertise. I pay for this site out of my own pocket because it’s my hobby. I do not sell vintage French copper (or anything else), and I’m not trying to get you to buy copper from anyone. I have no affiliation with any cookware or manufacturing companies, nor with online sellers. Any mentions of individuals or businesses are personal endorsements from me based on my own experiences, and I am not compensated in any way.
I don’t use AI to write posts. I write every word of my posts and pages by hand. I have corresponded with every guest post author and have absolute confidence in their authenticity. However, I do use AI to support my writing in these ways.
- I use AI to copyedit my writing to catch and correct typographical errors. Despite spending lots of time editing, I still miss mistakes, and AI has been useful to catch and correct my errors. (I am in the process of retrospectively copyediting previous posts.)
- I use AI to check the scientific and historical accuracy of my posts. This is extremely helpful — I do not want my interpretation of research to introduce errors.
- I toyed with setting up an AI chatbot to help readers find answers to copper-related questions, but the hallucinations drove me crazy. (I gave it my best shot — trained my own models, experimented with different settings — but the AI still made up information, and I can’t have that.)
- I am considering using AI to generate ALT text for images to help people with visual disabilities. This site has over five thousand images, and reviewing and describing them all myself would take many hours. My experiments have been only moderately successful — AI cannot recognize or transcribe copper stamps, for example — but I see AI-generated ALT text, with human review, as a legitimate and helpful contribution to the site’s accessibility.
But for posts? No. Never.
I protect my privacy, and I respect yours. My comment system asks for your email address, but only I can see it. I run this site myself; there are no assistants, so anything you share stays with me. If I think our conversation might be of interest to readers, I’ll ask you before using your words or pictures in a post. My site uses cookies to protect the comment system from spam, but I do not use that information for anything else.
If I provide a link to a product on Amazon, it’s just a regular link, like you’d get from a friend. I do not use affiliate links. I have encountered odd sites with sketchy cookware “reviews” that exist just for ads, affiliate links, and search engine shenanigans, and I want to reassure you: I do not do any of that. I link to items so you know exactly what I’m talking about, not because there’s money in it for me. Please find the best deal for you.
I also have an Instagram account. I take photos of my pots and pans as I cook with them. I’m neither a great cook nor a great food photographer, but I hope seeing old copper in use encourages you to buy and use it yourself. My Instagram handle is @vintagefrenchcopper.
I love guest posts. Would you like to show off your collection? Do you have a special piece you love? Have you learned about a certain maker you’d like to share? This is your place. Email me at vintagefrenchcopper@gmail.com.
I would really like to hear from you, especially if you have corrections—my goal is to provide trustworthy information. Please leave a comment on posts, or email me at vintagefrenchcopper@gmail.com.
Thank you for stopping by. We all learn from each other, and I’m glad you’re here.