24.00 USD
Aleppo April 8, 1922
To my chief little girlfriend,
My best kisses are contained in this envelope.
Albert
That was the message typed by Albert ( a young French bureaucrat, perhaps) on the reverse of our postcard that features this spectacularly luminous image by Jean Agelou.
Here we have an example of a postcard mailed within an envelope rather than simply shipped through the mails. We're grateful to Monsieur Albert for taking such care with the postcard that it came down to us in very nice condition! What we miss though, is seeing the name and address of the recipient. Was Albert's friend living in France, Damascus, or in Aleppo itself? We'll never know.
During the era of French colonialism when this card was mailed to its recipient, Aleppo, that very ancient, and still the largest, city in Syria, was under the control of the "French Mandate of Syria," a portion of the Levant handed over to France by the League of Nations, following the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in WWI. The Syrians weren't all that enthusiastic about the idea, and France had to take the territory by means of war.
It was a truly tumultuous period in that region, when small countries suddenly cut loose from the ruler-ship of empires, declared independence, often struggling to form fledgling democracies. Sometimes the advances they made were remarkably egalitarian for the times, but so often their newly celebrated liberties were snatched away by European colonial powers like the France of that time, or by the young Soviet Union. The world was to be run on oil, and everybody knew it by then.
Though there's nothing risque in this image beyond the lovely lace nightgown worn by our so cute model, we'll still list it with our risque cards, particularly since the photographer, Jean Agelou, is one of the best loved and most collectible of those early French photographers of risque and nude images.
Monsieur Agelou himself was a child of French colonialism. Born in Egypt to French parents in 1878, he was active as a photographer in France from at least the early 1900s and is best known today for his risque and erotic "french postcards."
He and his brother George produced "legitimate" work as well, and though we've read in a few places that George was not himself the photographer, but only handled the business end of their partnership, we've come across plenty of cards with the identifying logo "G A Paris" (G for George rather than J for Jean) and also a few marked Cliché George Agelou which might suggest that George took a more active role than is sometimes supposed, even striking out on his own for a time.
Jean Agelou and his brother George both died in an automobile accident in 1921, so though this card was probably published during his lifetime, it outlived its photographer.
Lovely card in very nice condition. There is a gentle thumb crease on the right edge of the card, visible in a zoomed in scan, though not so much by eye.
Please examine our high res scans for detail.
The item you are considering for purchase is, unless otherwise noted, a vintage postcard of approximately 5 and 1/2, by 3 and 1/2 inches. Postage is for fully insured, first class, shipping in a secure photo mailer (to avoid any damage to your purchase in the mails), 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 increases in international shipping rates will still be charged one card's shipping fees on orders of three or more. We do not charge for insurance or shipping materials, and as of the date of this listing are still charging below our overall cost on shipping.
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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!