Émile Parzudaki

Émile Parzudaki was born François Charles Emil Fauqueux. He was the son of Clarisse Moreuil and the furniture merchant François Napoléon Fauqueux (1806–1833). They married on 7 February 1828 in Nointel. After the death of his father, his mother married the natural history dealer Charles Parzudaki on August 19, 1837. In 1858, Émile added his name by decree, to the surname of his stepfather. In the course of the renaming, Emil also became Émile.

Among the scientists of his time, he was known only as Émile Parzudaki even before his official renaming. He called himself Émile Parzudaki in his first publication in 1856.

This was a catalogue with a list of bird specimens that he had compiled according to the systematics of Charles Lucien Jules Laurent Bonaparte. The value of the catalogue for science is also shown by the fact that Edmond de Sélys Longchamps wrote a review of it in 1857 and Bonaparte also published further notes.

Émile published further catalogues. In 1861, a catalogue of hummingbirds was published, and in 1862, together with Auguste Sallé, a catalogue of birds from Mexico. In 1862, Paolo Lanfossi reported on another catalogue of birds from Algeria (Catlogo degli uccelli d'Algeria del Parzudaki). Despite the publications, they did not only sell bird skins in their natural history trade. Exhibits of bird eggs, shells, insects, scorpions, amphibians and mammals can still be found in numerous natural history museums around the world. In the archives of the Reale Museo di fisica e storia naturale di Firenze, for example, there is a handwritten list of exotic reptiles entitled Elenco di rettili esotici ricevuti in baratto dal naturalista Emilio Parzudaki di Parigi (29 November 1862).

His importance as a natural history dealer is also shown by the fact that he had many skins in his possessions, which were new to science or already extinct. He also sold parts of François Victor Masséna's parrot collection to the Natural History Museum in London in 1859 and 1860. Around 1867, Émile must have given up the natural history trade.

The natural history shop was probably sold to Jérôme Louis Peter (c. 1819–1888) and his son Auguste Peter (1849–1899). In August 1874, he and Marie Joseph Emile Rogelin took over the management of their uncle Philippe Latour's shoe factory after his death. The production of the shoes was located in Liancourt and was managed by Parzudaki.

Charles and Émile's natural history shop was located at 2 rue Bouloi and 37 rue de La Fontaine-St-Georges. At the end of his life, Emile lived at 54 rue Ledru-Rollin in the 12th arrondissement of Paris