Commerce et Qualité

Lyon: Consortium General de Publicite de Lyon. Printer: Les Presses des Audin, Automne, 1949. First edition. Wraps. Very Good. Unusual comical promotion for 15 varied luxury businesses based in Lyon, including a watchmaker, a jeweler, a furrier, a florist, a shirtmaker, a couturier, an optician, a ceramist/glassmaker, a high-end shoe store, a handbag and glove business, a music store. For each, the business name, address and type are written on the cover of a folded sheet, accompanied by a cartoonish corner vignette, and then inside the folded sheet one comes upon a full-page cartoon with a jokey caption. 4to. 27.5 by 21.5 cm. 17 leaves, 15 of which are folded. (34 pages of mostly visual content, including the inside rear cover. Folded leaves have content on front and inside recto.) The artwork and humor is very broad, a bit vulgar, and might bring to mind the naughty cartoons of a Shel Silverstein or the strip cartoons of "B.C." Illustrations have orange/fleshy tinting. On the cover is a short manuscript inscription by the cartoonist, Effel, to a recipient, signed with his very singular artistic signature -- it is a loopy round swirl. Scarce, with only two copies found on OCLC -- at BNF, and Lyon.