Raymond TOURNON Cycles Brillant. ca. 1901. SIZE:... Lot 25

Raymond TOURNON Cycles Brillant. ca. 1901. SIZE: 43 1/4 x 59 in./109.8 x 149.8 cm PRINTER: Imp. Paul Dupont, Paris DESCRIPTION: The woman on the anvil symbolizes the manufacturer, and the laurel branch in her hand represents the accolade the bike received at the 1900 World’s Fair in Paris—a coveted distinction all award-winning products hastened to publicize. The anvil and the laurel were highly conventional advertising motifs of the time; Mucha had used both in his famous 1898 image for Waverley cycles (see PAI-XXXIX, 386). And if it was a good enough commercial conveyance for The Master, it was more than suitable for his lesser-known contemporary. (Art Nouveau; Bicycles)