Taken somewhere around Izmir in the 1930s, seated from left to right: Fernand Jacquignon, my mother (Thildette d’Andria), someone hidden behind, Maryse Jacquignon, Renée de Andria (who was the 1st wife of Marcel Jacquignon) and Marcel Jacquignon.

Aix-en-Provence in 1938, from left to right: Fernand Jacquignon, my mother (Thildette d’Andria), Marcel Jacquignon, Maryse and her husband Alfred Brusich.

The former Jacquignon house on the Kordon of Izmir in the ‘Bella Vista’ (Gündoğdu) area, the imposing facade is the third cumba from the left (information from Claude Caporal). The photo is from 1950. By this time the house was inhabited by Jak & Margot Kontente (photo), parents of Arslan Kontente, from the established Jewish carpet merchant family. Arslan Kontente inherited the carpet business from his father, expanded its operations to export to the USA, creating designs based on traditional Kula carpets working with selected suppliers. To strengthen his enterprise he then went into partnership with Guy Pagy, however business was cut short as he died of cancer at 50 years of age, in the 1980s. A cousin of Arslan is Leon Kontente a multilingual guide in Izmir in tourism, then he left for France and wrote the interesting book on Smyrna: ‘Smyrne et l’Occident’ in 2007.

A page from the Indicateur Commercial 1898-99 of Smyrna, on the partnership company of Jacquignon-Braggiotti, the construction materials / mosaic tiles company.

A glass roof tile on an auction site in 2019, possibly acting as a commercial sample piece for prospective buyers from this family company.