Introducing Rupert, Gibbon, and Spider

Ozone, One of The Katz Family Gibbons

Welcome to the Jacquard Products blog! We are an art supply manufacturer located in sunny, Healdsburg, California, about an hour and a half north of San Francisco. We've got our Corporate Office, Manufacturing and Shipping Facilities all located on a small campus right here in the heart of wine country.

Our brand is known as Jacquard, but did you know that our company is actually called Rupert, Gibbon, and Spider, Inc? Furthermore, did you know that neither Rupert, Gibbon, nor Spider actually works here?

Our story begins in 1980. Like so many operations, Jacquard started out in a family garage. For a period, the Katz family business was run out of the Katz family’s home, which, for many years, was also home to several primates, including two gibbons, and a spider monkey! The spider monkey was especially mischievous, and being something of an escape artist to boot, was known to cause trouble all over the neighborhood. 

This was in Pasadena, CA, where the trees are high, the homes are large and windows are often left open. One of the neighbors, Rupert, often found the Katz family spider monkey in his have-a-heart traps. When it came time to settle on a name for the business, the three most unique character's in the Katz family's lives came to mind: Rupert, Gibbon and Spider. And that, dear friends, is how Rupert, Gibbon, and Spider, Inc. got its name!