Expert: Irene Schwall - 11/12/2006

Question
I have two boxes of sewing thread From Cartier-Bresson. Each box is printed
in French and contains 10 wooden spools of thread.  One box is solid colers
the other has two-toned thread.Very Pretty Looks like Candy.  Almost want to
eat it! No dates on the box but inherited it from a great aunt along with
hundreds of buttons and other sewing notions and needles and such.  Never
threw anything away that one.  She would be almost 100 if she were living.  
Just wondering a little bit about these beautiful threads. Oh all cotton.  Each
wooden spool is numbered.  I assume it is the number of the color.  Thanks

Answer
Hello Chris,
I have never heard of this thread but used Google and this is what I found:
"Henri Cartier-Bresson was born in Chanteloup-en-Brie, near Paris, France, the eldest of five children. His father was a wealthy textile manufacturer, who liked to sketch in his spare time. At one time, almost every French sewing kit was stocked with "Cartier-Bresson" thread. On his mother's side were cotton merchants and landowners from Normandy, where he spent part of his childhood. The Cartier-Bresson family lived in a grand bourgeois neighborhood of Paris, near the Europe Bridge. They provided him with the financial support to develop his interests in photography in a more independent manner than many of his contemporaries."
For further reading see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Cartier-Bresson
I'm sorry I could not be of more help on the history of the factory.
Irene