12.00 USD
What a wonderful sequined costume! Mlle. Val-d'Or appears here on what was probably a publicity RPPC, not a card produced by one of the big publishers, though the work is certainly professional. A card such as this might have been circulated by her manager to booking agents throughout Europe in order to secure her work.
If you examine our close crop of the right side of her torso (from our perspective), you'll notice the careful touch-up work that takes a little off her waistline. The same work is applied to to the left side, and also to the right side of her face to shave a bit of the curve from her cheek.
Size and shape consciousness may have been less intense an issue in the entertainment world of the early 1900s, but it was still very much present, and although we find no history on this particular performer, and she may never have hit the big time, we've run across plenty of images of tremendously famous stars with photo studio-shaved waistlines.
This same touch-up technique was often used to hide the balance braces placed behind dancers in portraits that required difficult poses, since taking photos in those days was a time consuming process and the poses needed to be held for longer than was comfortable for the performers.
A charming image of a lovely gal and overall, a very nice unposted card with only minor wear.
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 not charge for 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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