Paris 1900 Grand Prix Exposition Trade Card for "Biscuits Lefevre Utile" *

Description

Description: This Charming Paris 1900 Grand Prix Exposition Trade Card is for "Biscuits Lefevre Utile". History -
“The
Exposition Universelle
of 1900 was a worlds fair held in
Paris
,
France
, from 15 April to 12 November 1900, to celebrate the achievements of the past century and to accelerate development into the next. The style that was universally present in the Exposition was
Art Nouveau
. The fair, visited by nearly 50 million, displayed many machines, inventions, and architecture that are now nearly universally known, including the
Grand Roue de Paris
Ferris wheel
,
Russian nesting dolls
,
diesel engines
,
talking films
,
escalators
, and the
telegraphone
(the first magnetic audio recorder). The Art Nouveau (“New Art”) style began to develop in the 1880s and became fashionable in Europe and the
United States
during the 1890s. The art form takes inspiration from the natural world, drawing references from botanical studies and deep sea organisms. Fluid twisting, curving lines and a “whiplash” effect are the trademarks of the natural art form. The art form took shape in works ranging from painting to sculpture and most notably architecture, appearing famously throughout the 1900 Paris Exposition Universelle. Structures such as the Porte Monumentale entrance, the Pavillon Bleu and the Grand and Petit Palais were largely oriented around the Art Nouveau theme."
Brief History of Trade Cards by Ben Crane
Over a century ago, during the Victorian era, one of the favorite pastimes was collecting small, illustrated advertising cards that we now call trade cards. These trade cards evolved from cards of the late 1700s used by tradesmen to advertise their services. Although examples from the early 1800s exist, it was not until the spread of color lithography in the 1870s that trade cards became plentiful. By the 1880s, trade cards had become a major way of advertising America's products and services, and a trip to the store usually brought back some of these attractive, brightly-colored cards to be pasted into a scrapbook. Some of the products most heavily advertised by trade cards were in the categories of: medicine, food, tobacco, clothing, household, sewing, stoves, and farm. The popularity of trade cards peaked around 1890, and then almost completely faded by the early 1900s when other forms of advertising in color, such as magazines, became more cost effective. Although trade card collecting began over 100 years ago, today's strong interest in trade cards began relatively recently. Trade cards that were bought for ten cents thirty years ago frequently bring ten dollars or more in today's market--and some have even sold for over a thousand dollars.
Measures 2-3/4" W x 4-1/4" H folded.
Condition: Corners and edges are slightly worn.
Free shipping in the U.S. Items are shipped out every Monday morning.
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!
11/2014
Nancy