?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 300 - $ 500
Club le Monocle. Black-and-White Press Photo.
1930s.
An image of five women seated at a table in the club with three in dresses and the other two in tuxedos, with stamps on verso indicating the photo was taken by Paul Balassa, and identifying French and American press; pencil notations indicating the name of the club in Montparnasse, and identifying one of the women in the photo as Lulu Munn, 7 x 9 1/2 in.
Club le Monocle opened in Paris in the 1920s as a safe space for lesbian patrons to gather. According to text on the verso of this image, Lulu Munn, the Montmartre club's owner is pictured in this image. Women wore monocles to quietly identify as gay within the community, thus the name of the club. The Nazi occupation of Paris forced le Monocle to close its doors in the 1940s, but it did re-open after the war on Boulevard Edgar Quinet, with a monocle-shaped facade. (cf. https://www.messynessychic.com/2016/09/14/inside-le-monocle-the-parisian-lesbian-nightclub-of-the-1930s/)
