?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 2,000 - $ 3,000
VARIOUS ARTISTS L'ECLAIR. Four portfolios with 25 plates (incomplete.) 12 5/8x8 7/8 inches. Buirette, Paris. Conditions vary, generally B+. Paper. During the 1890s, most of Europe, and America were gripped by unbridled poster mania. This new "art of the street" was turning gray city walls into vibrant billboards touting, with vitality and enthusiasm, the new commercial world as heralded by the Industrial Revolution. A natural extension of the poster lust was the popularity of poster contests. In 1895 the Century Magazine sponsored a competition. In 1898, Bio-Borax held a competition to advertise the telescope at the 1900 Paris Exhibition ("La Lune a Un Metre") was held in 1899. In 1897, L'Eclair, a nationalist newspaper, held this competition in honor of their 10th anniversary. The judges consisted of the most prestigious poster and academic artists of the day; among the most recognizable names were Jules Cheret, Eugene Grasset, Leo Forain, Albert Guillaume, Alphonse Mucha, Theofile-Alexandre Steinlen and Adolph Willette. The winning entry was by an American artist, Henry Thomas, whose poster was sold by La Plume and became memorialized as Les Maitres de l'Affiche plate 222. Second prize was awarded to Eugene Vavasseur, who went on to create the famous image for Ripolin Brothers paint. L'Eclair also chose to publish the 100 top entries, using a similar format to that of Les Maitres de l'Affiche with small reproductions and issued in small series. The 25 plates offered here are of exceptional interest as a window onto the prevailing commercial style of that time. They present a triumph of Art Nouveau. The names of well known artists such as Georges Meunier and Georges Lefevre appear side by side with names of artists sadly forgotten. All 100 plates must surely have been completed, as Roger Braun in his Bibliographie et Iconographie de l'Affiche Illustre (La Vieux Papier, 1908) mentions them. It is unlikely that a complete portfolio has ever surfaced and the individual plates themselves are rarely seen. Most likely the subscription was not very successful. Thus, this is a very rare document and an interesting decorative ensemble. Includes plates 1, 4-8, 10-14, 16, 18-26, 28-31.
