Caminade c.1911 Poster — La Fabrication Préférée des Champions

— Poster —
“CAMINADE”
LA FABRICATION PRÉFÉRÉE DES CHAMPIONS

JANTES NERVURÉES
Fabriquées par la Cie Franco-Américaine

GUIDONS RÉVERSIBLES
REFLET D’OR

[On the two medallions:]

FRANÇOIS FABER
ÉMILE FRIOL

[On the head badge, round a monogram:]

CAMINADE

TOUS LES MODÈLES
EN VENTE ICI

[Printed up the left-hand edge of the sheet:]

REGISTRE DU COMMERCE No 7.076 _ Levallois

[Printed at the lower right:]

PUBLICITÉ WALL – PARIS

[A winged woman in streaming red flies in from the right with handlebars of every shape tumbling behind her, and two gold medallions hang before her with the portraits of François Faber and Émile Friol. Below them a Caminade head badge stands among palm fronds, and a line of racing cyclists drawn in gray sweeps round in a curve toward the reader, each smaller than the one before. The picture is printed in red, yellow and gold inside a ragged black border on a pale margin.

The sheet sells parts as much as bicycles: ribbed rims made for Caminade by the Compagnie Franco-Américaine, and reversible handlebars in a gold finish, which is why the bars fill half the sky. Faber won the Tour de France in 1909 and Friol was sprint champion of the world in 1907 and 1910, so the two champions fit the year the museum gives the sheet, 1911.

The trade-register line does not fit it. France created its registre du commerce by a law of March 1919, and the register began work in June 1920, so a sheet carrying a register number was printed in 1920 or later. Either this copy is a later printing of a 1911 design, or the museum’s date belongs to the medallions rather than to the paper.]