?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 2,000 - $ 3,000
ALPHONSE MUCHA (1860-1939) CHAMPAGNE MOËT & CHANDON. Group of 5 menus. 1899. Each approximately 8 5/8x5 7/8 inches, 30x15 cm. F. Champenois, Paris. Condition varies, generally A. Paper. Framed together. Unexamined out of frame. In 1899, Mucha designed a pair of posters for Moët & Chandon. Shortly thereafter, the images were used on menus. In an era of banquets, elegant dinner affairs and social dining, Mucha's images could serve a double purpose, both as large posters for the streets and smaller advertisements for within Paris' most elegant restaurants. In addition to his first two images, Mucha designed two sets of four menus for Moët & Chandon. The first set featured women holding glasses, and although they each have one of Mucha's trademark halos behind their heads, "the characters are quite stiff and static. The drawing lacks the customary luxuriance and movement" (Mucha / Postcards p. 8). The second group, featuring sensuous women playing with vines, is Mucha at his finest. Champenois also issued these images as postcards. Mucha / Postcards 10, 15, 13, 16 (var), 11, Sarah Mucha p. 53, Mucha / Henderson p. 97, Mucha / Bridges G1g.
