22.00 USD
This is a particularly interesting risque postcard using the ubiquitous hand mirror prop, and although the card itself has seen better days and shows its age, the quality of light and contrast in the image is quite beautiful. It is also a rare card, not because it is a Jean Agelou image (though these are scarce enough), but because this particular card is quite possibly one of a kind!
Jean Agelou was a renowned master of the "French Postcard," and some of his images have become quite hard to find.
This particular card is a rare American bootleg on an old Kodak AZO RPPC photo sheet. The AZO stamp box in the upper right corner of the backside has four triangles pointing up, which dates this early card to sometime between 1904 and 1918.
This is obviously a bootleg version of the original Agelou card, produced in the studio of some enterprising American. Agelou's J.A. logo is partially visible in the bottom right of the image, beneath the table (see image crop).
We would hazard that an American picked up an original version of this postcard while in France, or that it was mailed to him by a friend in France. Then, in his workshop, he made a photograph of the original card. The image was then cropped (as we can see by the cut off J.A. logo at the bottom right edge) from that new negative, and printed on Kodak paper.
Because this bootleg was produced in Agelou's time, in fact quite possibly within a year, or so, of its French printing, it traces for us the transatlantic migration of this French image to the United States. For this reason, though it is still just an American reprint of an original French card, it should be of particular historical interest to collectors and scholars in this narrow field.
There is some wear to edges, corners, and surface. 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!