29.00 USD
Zowie! What is likely to be a one-of-a-kind RPPC (Real Photo Postcard) of a dancer engaged in some variety of "veil" dance, probably circa late 1910s, or into the 20s. The "As de Trefle" logo (text on reverse) was for a Parisian producer of photographic plates and papers, in business between the 1880s and the 1950s.
This is one of three cards from a group we acquired a couple of weeks ago. So much to appreciate here! This dancer wears the "racoon" eyes popularized in the mid-1910s by film stars of that era, a fashion that definitely persisted into the '20s.
She has already discarded at least one veil at her feet, and the one that remains is sheer enough for us to glimpse the costume (and lack of costume) beneath. She's topless beneath the veil, while around her hips she wears a very nice bit of bangled "costume orientale" of the kind brought over to France from their colonies in Algeria and Morocco.
What appears to be a painting of Pierrot and friends decorates the wall behind her, but do you see how the painting, poster, or mural, follows the shape of the wall, bending past a corner? Love this almost surreal detail :)
The barrenness of the room (apart from the poster and the upright piano), is only one aspect of the image confirming that this is a wonderfully amateur RPPC. We can only guess at the object of the exercise. Were there more in the "series" than the three we found? How many veils did she start with? And what did she end with?
Might these photos have been intended for the offices of a theatrical agent, or were they taken just for fun, perhaps to be mailed off to a lover who could have been, circa 1918, posted on the Western Front of the "Great War?"
But no matter their original purpose, as with so many RPPCs, we enjoy a window into that extraordinary moment as it was experienced by an "ordinary" person, in an "ordinary" way. Pure time travel :)