?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 1,200 - $ 1,800
PAL CYCLES CLEMENT MOTOCYCLES. Circa 1897. 57x421/2 inches. Paul Dupont, Paris. Condition B+: repaired tears in margins affecting text; overpainting and restoration in margins; horizontal fold. Adolphe Clement was one of the real pioneers of the bicycle business. He began his career as a racer in some of the sport's earliest races and founded his company in 1878 -- one of the very first in France. Throughout the 1880s his was one of the largest bicycle manufacturing companies in France and, in 1891, he further cemented his position in the market by buying the exclusive French rights for Dunlop's patented rubber tires. Pal designed at least four different posters for Clement, this one focusing on the company's factory (with the claim that it is the largest in the world!) In fact most of the poster is taken up by the impressive building, with the rest composed of a sensuous, yet strong, allegorical woman (her hammer and anvil indicating that she represents industry) standing between a bicycle and a motorcycle. As this rare poster does not appear listed in the Reims catalogue, it most likely post-dates 1896.
