Vélocistes-Motocistes au service du client — L’Officiel du cycle, 1 May 1954, Marcel Guignebourg for the Cycle and Motor-Cycle Dealers

From L’Officiel du cycle, du motocycle et du camping, 1 May 1954, the paper’s special export number, printed in French, English, Spanish and German, page 62: ‘Velocistes-Motocistes au service du client’: declaration by Marcel Guignebourg, president of the Federation Nationale des Velocistes et Motocistes, on 25,000 dealers serving about 15 million bicycle users and 2.5 million motor-cycle users; French, English, Spanish and German; portrait. The title, headings, captions and lists are transcribed as printed; the text is summarized in Ebykr’s words, and the page images carry it in full.

— Page 1 —
VÉLOCISTES-MOTOCISTES
AU SERVICE DU CLIENT

Une déclaration de M. Marcel GUIGNEBOURG, Président
de la « Fédération Nationale des Vélocistes et Motocistes » ;
of the « National Federation of Cycle and Motor-Cycle Dealers » ;
de la « Federación Nacional de Velocistas y Motocistas » ;
der « Nationaler Verband des Fahrrad-und Motorradhandler ».

[Ebykr summary; the article’s text is not reproduced. The French statement, in quotation marks, says that about 25.000 of the federation’s members are spread over the whole territory and are permanently at the disposal of users of the bicycle, cyclomoteur, vélomoteur, scooter and motorcycle, some fifteen million for the unmotorized cycle and two and a half million for motorcycles, who place their daily trust in them. These dealers, whose professional name is « Vélocistes-Motocistes », know thoroughly the machines the French industry puts on the market, so varied yet so uniform in technique. Foreign users who chose such machines have, the author does not doubt, drawn the same satisfaction in their own countries as French customers; and visitors who came to enjoy the tourist beauty of France and rode its picturesque roads on the same machines have seen for themselves the conscientiousness, competence and amiability of the dealers, who are always ready to supply quality work at the fairest price and to give their advice freely out of experience.]

[Ebykr summary, in English. The English version, set below a rule under a large drop capital S, repeats the statement in the same order: 25,000 members, fifteen million users of ordinary bicycles and two and a half million of motorcycles, the dealers’ full knowledge of French models, the satisfaction of foreign clients and the praise of tourists for the dealers’ conscientiousness, efficiency and friendliness, quality work at a keen price and advice founded on long experience.]

[Ebykr summary, in Spanish. The Spanish version, in italic type under a large drop capital L, gives the same statement: 25.000 professionals, quince millones de usuarios del ciclo sin motor and dos millones y medio of motorcyclists, knowledge of the machines of French industry, the satisfaction of foreign users and the observations of tourists on the conscience, competence and courtesy of the dealers.]

[Ebykr summary, in German. The German version, under a large drop capital N, gives the same statement: etwa 25.000 berufsmässige Mechaniker, etwa 15 Millionen Fahrräder ohne Motor and 2 1/2 Million Leichtmotorräder, the dealers’ excellent knowledge of the French machines, the satisfaction of foreign users and tourists, and the dealers’ conscientiousness, competence, friendliness, fair prices and free advice.]

[A text page opening a trade statement, with a heavy two-line title panel and one halftone portrait, on a plain ground with no advertiser. At the upper left a square halftone portrait shows a man with a heavy face in a dark round-crowned hat, a dark jacket, white collar and a patterned tie, looking straight at the viewer against a dark graduated ground. At the upper right a ruled box holds the title in heavy slab-serif capitals, VÉLOCISTES-MOTOCISTES over AU SERVICE DU CLIENT, and below it five italic lines in four languages naming the speaker and the federation, with a small eight-pointed star ornament at the left of the English line; GUIGNEBOURG is set in small capitals. Below, the statement runs in sans-serif type in two columns in four stacked sections separated by heavy horizontal rules: French in roman with a large drop capital É, English in roman with a drop capital S, Spanish in italic with a drop capital L and German in roman with a drop capital N. No caption, credit line, artist signature or agency mark is visible, and no text from the reverse of the leaf shows through.]