Happy New Year from Yesteryear

As the New Year is kicking into gear, and our idea of the obligatory New You is following suit, it is all too tempting to map it out of Brand New Things as opposed to just New Things! Now hold on. How about turning back the clock, especially as far as those vintage French New Year fancy cards (a.k.a. mignonettes) are concerned?

Bonne Année (1908)

The design of those yesteryear cards bears more gusto and compulsion than today's watered-down/ minimalistic representations. Look at those freestyle calligraphic fonts embossed in gold dust and swathed in flowers, a call for Spring in the thick of Winter: how dainty and desirable are they!

Bonne Année (year unknown)

Picture the scene: you get ready for breakfast, check the post as coffee is percolating away, and bring back half a dozen of those adorable mignonettes from the letterbox to your kids and spouse. Open them together and relish on the sweet words sent out to your family by other loved ones, as you sip café au lait and munch on chocolatines. Rejoice in the knowledge that the senders are receivers too as they too are experiencing the tokens of family joy which you sent them. 

Happy New You, Y'All!

Bonne Année (1912)

Bonne Année (1909)

Bonne Année (1906)

Bonne Année (1908)

Source: Move over, eBay, the big boys are in town! Delcampe is the specialised ephemera auction site from Belgium that describes itself as the greatest marketplace for collectors, with a current offering of almost 80 million items from the world over - I kid you not!

Postcards (> 46.4 million items to choose from!), postage stamps (> 22.8 million!), books, magazines and comics (> 2.6 million), old papers (> 2.5 million, anything from autographs to invoices and lottery tickets!), numismatics (> 1.1 million!), and other collectibles (> 3 million, including photography, advertising and music). From the commonplace to the rare collector piece, from the affordable to the extravagant, from the dilettante à la Mirabelle to the serious hobbyist à la J. Paul Getty, Delcampe has it covered.

Bilingual, so why not? A Happy New Year (1908)

You may kickstart your collecting career with less than five dollars to spare, making you the proud owner of a 100-year-old greeting card (see above). Collecting has to start somewhere and it might as well start with those as the risk factor is close to nil. Note the strong use of symbology for love, luck, happiness, peace, eternity and prosperity: heart, four-leaf clover, horseshoe, lily of the valley, dove, forget-me-not and mistletoe. (1) Bonne Année greeting card from 1908. (2) Bonne Année greeting card (year unknown). (3) Bonne Année greeting card from 1912. (4) Bonne Année greeting card from 1909. (5) Bonne Année greeting card from 1906. (6) Bonne Année greeting card from 1908. (7) A Happy New Year greeting card from 1908. Cards (1) to (6) are still available to purchase.

The Jim Roslof Auction

Yesterday I took part in an interesting eBay auction organised by our friends over at The Collector's Trove, that of the late Jim Roslof's personal collection of sketches, studies, illustrations and other fine art collectables which he produced over a prolific 30 year-span, including for TSR (Tactical Studies Rules), the legendary Lake Geneva, Wisconsin-based company that unleashed fantasy role-playing game and brought us Dungeons & Dragons. Jim Roslof (1946-2011) was TSR talented Art Director, and headed a team of 12 accomplished artists who together lent TSR products their strong visual identity, and in doing so, influenced fantasy art at large to leave a lasting and distinctive all-encompassing legacy that includes calligraphy, illumination, engraving and cinematic images - a legacy which is still relevant today.

In the light of this, needless to say that the auction was a call to action for hardcore fans of D&D, strategy and war games, and for fantasy art collectors alike and Roslof aficionados. Jim's wife, Laura Roslof, an artist herself and a former TSR employee, made this possible by partnering with The Collector's Trove for the auctioning of Jim's treasures. Each numbered lot comes with its own unique Certificate of Authenticity signed by the lady herself.

As an aside, forgive me for quoting a 'cracking' anecdote relayed by The Collector's Trove in their auction listings:

'Laura, during her tenure, (...) was so successful with catalogs, reaching out to military organizations, service member periodicals, and military base exchanges that she turned the operation from a money-losing endeavor into a profitable one. As a result, the company's chief executive, Brian Blume, promptly fired her. He explained that the catalog operation was supposed to be a money-losing department for the tax write-off! He then re-assigned her to the Pre-Press Department where they did want to be profitable.'

I placed a number of (frantic!) bids on three separate items, including the Hippogriff (pictured above) and the figures kept creeping up. I soldiered on in the auction fever, placed a maximum bid but got outbid both financially and by the 7-hour time difference. The Hippogriff eventually sold off for $214.50. I am a little despondent because my fondness for the creature had increased more fondly along the way and I did covet that piece of art but that's the way it goes. All the best to Griff in his new life, and I am certain he will be lovingly looked after.

Source: All photography via The Collector's Trove. (1) TSR AD&D Monster Cards Hippogriff Original Study Colored Ink on Parchment, 1982, Unsigned Jim Roslof and TSR AD&D Monster Cards Hippogriff Original Study Ink on Parchment, 1982, Unsigned Jim Roslof. This is Jim's initial work on his Hippogriff Monster Card art. Auctioned off for $214.50. (Photography lightened up by Mirabelle). (2) The cherry on the auction's cake was the TSR D&D Module X1 Isle of Dread Back Cover Art, Unused Original Final Paint on Illustration Board, Unsigned 1985 Jim Roslof. Auctioned off for $3,828.00. Another covet of mine and a testament to classic fantasy art mastery, but sadly way out of my bidding league!

The 1940s Paris Apartment

Picture the scene - Five years ago, one Solange Beaugiron, a 91-year-old French lady, passed away in the south of France, leaving in her estate a mysterious Paris apartment located in the 9th arrondissement, less than a mile away from Opéra Garnier. The apartment belonged to her grandmother, a one-time actress and high-class courtesan known as Marthe de Florian (1864-1939).

Marthe died in the apartment that she shared with her only son, Henri (1884-1966). In 1942, under the German occupation of Paris, Henri's daughter, Solange, relocated down south. Meanwhile Henri carried on leaving at the apartment until his death. Solange never returned to clear the property, instead limiting her involvement to paying the obligatory taxes and expenses.

Miraculously for all of those years that the Paris apartment had been put to a forced and restful slumber like Sleeping Beauty incarnate, it remained untouched. A thin veil of dust enshrined its contents, as if to preserve them from the harshness of the passing of time. When the De Florian estate officials carefully pushed open that front door, they were faced with the stuff of fairy tales that transcends any secret expectation: a treasure trove of time-defiant relics and antiques-worthy artefacts (the monumental vanity table to begin with!), not to mention piles of love letters, and a portrait of Marthe by Italian painter and personal admirer of hers, Giovanni Boldini (1842-1931) that would go on to fetch a record €2.1 million at auction!

The apartment got Mirabelle's mind into overdrive. I imagine that some of the artefacts I have included below might well have found themselves at home in such a place! Just think of those little classy - short of rococo - vintage pieces that Madame de Florian would have fancied surrounding herself with: -

Are there any artefacts which you would like me to add to Madame de Florian's apartment? Let's have a little fun and email me the links to mirabelle.inspiration@gmail.com and I shall upload the pictures to this very article.

Sources: (1-3) Madame de Florian's apartment, via Démotivateur. (3) Portrait of Madame de Florian by Giovanni Boldini. The painting was found in the apartment. (4) Antique French Pink-Lined Trinket Box (jewellery case) and (5) Victorian 14K Gold Amethyst and Seed Pearl Ring, both via Paris Hotel Boutique. (6) Pellucid Earrings by Sorrelli, and (7) Pont d'Arcades Clutch by Santi, both via BHLDN. (8) Signed Art Nouveau 14K Gold Enameled Pansy Flower Pin Pendant and Watch Holder, via Ebay.

@parishotel You are very welcome! Your boutique items are all so lovely indeed!

— Mirabelle ♥ (@MirabelleDesign) June 23, 2015

eBay Buy - 19th Century French Door Knocker

Mirabelle netted this little gem out of the eBay interwebs four weeks ago: a 19th century hand-shaped cast-iron door knocker, that I purchased straight off for 50 Euros (no auction) - from a vendor based in the Bordeaux region. A few days later, it landed through the post and I was over the moon about it!

The door knocker is to be fitted to the front door of the old Corsican family house, in replacement for the bronze one that used to be there - until it got stolen.

In the meantime, my personal track-record of five eBay purchases in the nine years since I opened my eBay account, can hardly describe me as the compulsive eBay shopper. Though convenience and the readily availability of vintage items got the better of me, when I considered getting a door knocker. I just didn't relish the prospect of scouring those junk shops and jumble sales miles away in the elusive hope of sourcing it, so eBay presented itself as an option of choice. Now I might have started developing a little compulsion over eBay as I am currently looking for sconces and a desk lamp. I shall keep you posted on this!

Source: All photography by Mirabelle.