24.00 USD
Young dancers performing in that "classical" variety of costume so popular in Art Nouveau media during la Belle Epoque. It is images like these that give us a taste of the era's "ideal" essence, as expressed through the imaginations of the actual people living it.
Quimper (pronounced GYAM-pear), France, where these photos were taken, is the ancient capital of Celtic Brittany, situated in far northwestern France. In 1910 (our approximate for when this card was printed), Quimper's population was at about 19,000, making it a relatively small town, by today's standards.
It was large enough though, to offer higher education in the region, and we are guessing these young ladies were students at college, and that the photographer created a series of images from this local theatrical production, out of which we are lucky enough to have found three.
Rare postcards? Though certainly printing runs were smaller in the early 1900s, there aren't many cards in our shop that we can really claim are rare. Most of them were printed at least in the thousands, and even copies of what are less common images, in our experience, resurface again and again.
RPPCs though (real photo post cards), definitely qualify as "rare" postcards. These were cards made by local studio photographers, and amateur home photographers, that were produced for very limited audiences, rather than for widespread commercial distribution. In this case, these images of a local, and almost certainly an amateur, theatrical production, would have been printed in a very small run of which most, over the intervening century (two world wars, etc.), will probably have been lost. It is quite possible that this card is the only one remaining!
Joseph Marie Vallard was a respected photographer well established in Quimper. His father, Joseph Vallard Sr., had also been a professional photographer, in Quimper, in the mid-nineteenth century, who taught his son the craft. In fact, yet a third Joseph would carry on the tradition after Joseph Marie. Three generations of Vallards as photographers in Quimper. It gives rise to the romantic notion of the town photographer as bard, or "keeper of stories," recording as they did, christenings, weddings,funerals, celebrations and tragedies. We think there is something sacred in that, when thought of in this way, but we do get kinda gooey about this stuff :)
Please examine our high res scans for detail.
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.
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!