Chaussures “Incroyable”.
$700
Chaussures “Incroyable”.
Paris, Imprimerie E. Acker, [c. 1900].
(22.3 x 13.8 cm). 40 pp. Original printed and illustrated wrappers, stapled. Richly illustrated with color drawings of shoes for women and men, and 8 full-page color caricatures of actresses and actors from the period. A fine copy. Stamp of the Chaussures Incroyable boutique at 29 rue du 4 Septembre, Paris.
Undated, but the presence of Coquelin aîné in the role of Cyrano in the final illustration dates the catalog to sometime before 1909 when the great actor made his final bow, below. Sarah Bernhardt also features.
A marvelously handsome full-color sales catalog presenting the different models of shoes for men, women and children from the firm Chaussures Incroyable [Incredible Shoes]. The illustrations of the firm’s latest model of shoes are interspersed with 8 pages of caricatures drawn by Hector Moloch (1849-1909) depicting the leading actors and actresses of the time, in stage costumes, but transposed into salespersons and customers. The color printing was by Acker. The recto of the back wrapper lists the addresses of the firm’s retail shops, 20 in Paris and 120 worldwide (North Africa, Switzerland, Belguim, and England).
