6.00 USD
A wonderful little card! Although we don't place a very high monetary value on this one, its publisher, Albert Bergeret, is of such importance to postcard history, that we thought we ought to devote a little time to him!
Albert Bergeret (1859-1932) was a hugely prolific French publisher of postcards, and is pretty much acknowledged as the father of the postcard in France.
Trained as a printer in Paris, Monsieur Bergeret relocated to Nancy, in Lorraine, in 1886. There, he worked for the Royer printing house until 1898 when he established his own business.
Of course, at this time, postcards were really catching on; Monsieur Bergeret produced and sold 25 million of them in the year 1900, alone.
In 1901, L'Ecole de Nancy was formed. This was a group of artists and tradesmen devoted to bridging the gap between art and industry, and according to an article in Wikipedia, "spearheading" the Art Nouveau movement in France. Apparently Albert Bergeret was closely allied with them, and was responsible for a great many postcards incorporating designs clearly inspired by Art Nouveau.
His home also, called the Villa Bergeret, was designed by a member of l'Ecole de Nancy, Lucien Weissenburger, and incorporated the works of many other local artists in its construction. Images of it are easily accessible on Google should you be interested.
Bergeret cards are highly collectible and have a very devoted fan base. The quality of photo-reproduction in these cards is, in our opinion, not all that great, but the images themselves are often funny, clever, and sometimes really beautiful.
Many Bergeret cards incorporated little rhyming poems into their imagery, although this particular card has only the word, "Souvenir" in an attractive Art Nouveau font, and framed by some lovely graphic work in that curvilinear style so recognizable as coming out of the Art Nouveau movement.
The word souvenir, for most of us, has come to mean a memento of a place or occasion, Plastic salt and pepper shakers purchased in that motel gift shop in Grand Rapids where we stayed while on vacation :) but in this case, the word is simply a way of saying "Remember me," or "I'm remembering you." How sweet!
As the third image for this listing, we are including one we pulled off the web of another Bergeret card. This is not for sale (we don't even own it), but we thought you might enjoy it as a postcard related image. Also, this card has one of those short rhyming poems we mentioned earlier, and shows that while probably not taking himself too seriously, M. Bergeret was not above tooting his own horn. Below is the rhyme in French, and just for fun, our own relatively close translation of it into English.
Sur votre machine ronde,
La carte postale abonde;
Les editeurs inventifs
S' efforcent d'etre instructifs
Quel est les meilleur en France?
Ce mystere est eclairci,
Je le dis sans reticence,
C'est Bergeret, de Nancy.
Armand Gaboriaul
From our printing press round,
Do postcards abound;
By editorial invention,
They bestow information.
Which, in France, is the best?
This is clear; no contest!
Without hesitancy,
Bergeret, of Nancy.
Sincere apologies to any literary folks in the audience :)
Please examine our high res scans for detail.
Postage is for first class shipping in a secure photo mailer, and we happily combine shipping on all paper goods. If you purchase two cards, we will refund the postage on the second card, and when you purchase three or more cards from us at the same time, your shipping will be entirely free, except for international orders which, because of sudden increases in international shipping rates will still be charged one card's shipping fees on orders of three or more.
And please come visit our blog at:
redpoulaine.blogspot.com
where we post biographical and historical tidbits, images of cards and photographs for sale, some already sold but remembered fondly, related images of historical interest and sometimes even images of items that have not yet arrived in the shop, but that are expected to arrive soon, as well as coupon codes, links to other related sites, and more!