Concertina album of French stationer’s hand-painted advertisements

Saint-Jean-d’Angély, France: Librairie H. Brodeau, 1920. Remarkable hand-painted album advertising stationery supplies, apparently produced in-house by Librairie H. Brodeau in the French town of Saint-Jean-d’Angély: the Brodeau shop is depicted on the upper board of the album, around the corner from the town’s fifteenth-century clock tower, and one of the interior advertisements depicts a box of Sevigné writing paper branded with the Brodeau name and Saint-Jean-d’Angély location. The album contains a mix of vibrant, naïvely painted advertising posters (playing cards, cigarettes and cigarette papers, fountain pens, violet soap) and detailed visual catalogues of individual product lines (erasers, penknives, scissors, compasses, inks). The double-page spread of Larousse dictionaries has been edited to reflect updated retail prices for the year 1927, placing the creation of the album itself somewhat earlier. We can only speculate as to the intended use of this concertina: if Brodeau served as a wholesale supplier to other retailers in southwestern France, this portable album could have been a salesman’s catalogue. The concertina can be extended or contracted to fill shelf gaps, so it could also have been displayed on the shop floor, or used as window décor. In any event, the album offers a glimpse into the provincial high street scene of the 1920s, characterized then (as now) by a series of cheerful everyday purchases whose packaging inspires a special kind of nostalgia. A terrific survival. Handmade concertina album, measuring 14.5 x 11 inches folded (extending to over twenty feet), comprising 21 double-sided hand-painted panels hinged with red bookcloth, folded into two heavy red cloth-covered boards. Panel depicting Larousse dictionaries with new printed prices pasted over painted prices. Outer boards with painted panels mounted to exterior (Saint-Jean-d’Angély street scene featuring Librairie H. Brodeau to upper board, painted reproduction of Leonetto Cappiello’s elephant poster for Le Nil cigarette papers to lower board), marbled paper to versos. Moderate rubbing, light spotting to painted panels. (Inventory #: 1004077)