Gifted by one American serviceman to another, a collection of risque Belle Epoque French postcards with provenance linking the collection to US combatants in Europe during the First World War. Just off the boat from convoy ‘Henry Mercier U.S.S. Albany’ has recorded his ownership first, before giving it to a member of the Marine Corps: ‘to James J Bell U.S.M.C.’
Artistic cartes postales - which meant naughty and erotic - were a prerogative of the Parisian print market in this period and no young man’s education was complete without them. This collection is particularly interesting because the little narrative sequences of cards have been kept together.
DESCRIPTION:
Art nouveau-style ‘Albume pour Cartes Postales’ (30 x 21 cm) boards worn and frayed around edges but sound. Floral endpapers; thick card leaves prepared for postcard mounting. In all, 98 cards, most in little narrative sequences of 5 or 6 cards as below:
USS Albany, Cruiser, mostly Pacific - out of commission by 1922
Postcard by Hildesheimer addressed from UK to ‘Miss J Mackey, Ballaney Dramore’ - Edw VII stamp
Two singletons precede:
1 Carte Postale, 9, c1905 - wedding night though the model for the at-first blindfolded groom appears to be female
2 Carte Postale, 11, - Brothel seduction scene, involving an older monocled man and a disrobing younger woman; the older man eventually wakes to be presented with his bill for services rendered
3 Carte Postale, 6, - partial strip tease on a high bed of a corseted young woman - coloured
4 Carte Postale, 6, - tailor measuring young woman’s bust then disrobing
5 Carte Postale, 5 - young woman disrobes solo, before getting onto bed to read
6 Carte Postale, 6 - partial striptease while getting ready for bed, intense colour
7 Carte Postale, 6 - chamber pot sequence
8 Carte Postale, 6 - seduction over a card table
9 Carte Postale, 6 - couple preparing for bed
10 Carte Postale, 6 - young couple La Boheme style making out in a garret
11 Carte Postale, 8 - ‘Gibus’ illustrated sequence, Arti Grafiche L Amadori Pattari, milano - a couple meeting in a park, entering a Cabinet Particulier and repairing to bed
12 Carte Postale, 6, Female nude next to a dinner table, striking poses
There are several individual nudes scattered through including a Reutlinger, Paris, images of a standing nude female figure with Italian good wishes written on the verso and a postcard by Hildesheimer addressed from UK to ‘Miss J Mackey, Ballaney Dramore’ with an Edward VII stamp (1901-1910)
