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A. Pitron-L. Michel

1890? 3 cards with a picture side showing a small animal scene and a larger parallel human scene. Almost 3" x just over 4¼". 30 Francs each from Annick Tilly, August, '01. TMCM for €2.50 from Albert van den Bosch, Antwerp, June, '23.

These are smaller-scale reproductions of four of the cards I have labeled as from Bouillon, Rivoyre et Cie. As there, the human scenes are provocative, as when a man of the road speaks with a well-dressed man in DW. One of the more suggestive fable cards I have seen is FC, in which a well dressed man is no doubt flattering a lovely shepherdess. I cannot construe what is happening in "Le Cheval & le Loup" beyond that a smirking young man is kicking a kneeling older man in the face. The verso of FC is blank. DW has "Aux Grand Marchés de Russie" on its picture side, and so it has advertising for the same firm on its verso. "Le Cheval & le Loup" advertises François Gianella in Dijon: "Spécialité de Chaussures in tous Genres." The printer of the latter card is A. Pitron, while L. Michel printed DW. Both are on the Boulevard des Italiens in Paris. "Le Cheval et le Loup" has been slightly cropped. TMCM has been cleverly transposed to the home of an aristocrat as he is about to be visited by armed soldiers.

FC

DW

Le Cheval et le Loup

TMCM