PAQUIN (Joseph), BERTHOLLE & Co. Advertising catalog ill - Lot 220

PAQUIN (Joseph), BERTHOLLE & Co. Advertising catalog illustrated by Maurice Millière. Paris, Joseph Paquin, Bertholle & Co., 43 Boulevard des Capucines; P. Schneider & Co., engravers, 1908. Advertising booklet in narrow 8vo format, bound with a pink silk cord; cover of thick cream-colored embossed paper, adorned with a laminated color illustration within a blind-stamped border featuring ribbons and flowers; gold-stamped “Mieulx” mark at the top of the back cover. An elegant brochure published by Joseph Paquin, Bertholle & Cie on the occasion of the expansion of its stores on Boulevard des Capucines. The Bibliothèque historique de la Ville de Paris holds a collection of these brochures from the firm and notes that those from 1908 and 1911 were published to showcase the new spaces following the expansions. It opens with a printed letter dated “Paris, October 5, 1908,” addressed to customers and recalling “the success of the inauguration of our stores’ expansions,” before presenting the house’s new creations: suits, coats, furs, and hats. The book is particularly notable for its illustrations by Maurice Millière (1871–1946): a cover depicting an elegant woman wearing a long dress and an ermine stole in a wooded landscape, and a spectacular full-color double-page spread, *Some of Our Creations*, showing the bustling interior of the stores, with elegant customers and salespeople among the counters. This attribution to Millière is confirmed by the bibliographic descriptions of other copies of this 1908 brochure. A rare and charming document of Parisian fashion from the Belle Époque, particularly appealing for the quality of its printing, its embossed decoration, and its color compositions. The Paquin-Bertholle house also constitutes a well-identified collection within the ephemera holdings of the Bibliothèque historique de la Ville de Paris. A fine copy, complete with its pink cord; a few slight marks and minor marginal wear on the cover.