Peugeot 1908 Poster — Mich

— Poster —
DEUX GRANDS VAINQUEURS

[On the long scroll held by the rider:]

1908
CYCLES
PEUGEOT

VICTOIRES
EN
UNE SAISON

TOUR DE FRANCE
14 ÉTAPES – 14 VICTOIRES
TOUR DE FRANCE
4 PREMIÈRES PLACES DU
CLASSEMENT GÉNÉRAL
Gd PRIX DE PARIS
TOUR DE BELGIQUE
PARIS-BRUXELLES
CHAMPIONNATS DE FRANCE
CHAMPIONNAT DU MONDE
PARIS-TOURS

[On the short scroll held by the figure at the right. The last name is rolled into the paper and only its ending shows:]

VICTOIRES
EN
DIX ANNÉES
RIVOLI
IÉNA
AUSTERLITZ
FRIEDLAND
WAGRAM
…TAEDT

LES FILS DE PEUGEOT FRÈRES, CONSTRUCTEURS A VALENTIGNEY, (DOUBS)

REPRÉSENTANT :

[Signed at the right:]

d’après Mich

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

IMP. L. REVON & Cie 93, rue Oberkampf, PARIS

[A Bibliothèque Forney stamp with the number 174944 is struck on the paper at the foot of the PARIS-TOURS scroll, and a dealer’s price is penciled in the upper left corner.]

[A broad landscape sheet. At the left a grinning sun rises over a green field, its rays fanning across the sky in bands of yellow and slate, and a racing cyclist in a pale jersey with a red collar and armband stands beside a yellow racing bicycle, holding out a long scroll of Peugeot’s 1908 victories that unrolls to the grass. At the right Napoleon, in his bicorne and a long brown greatcoat with the Légion d’honneur on his breast, looks down sourly at a much shorter scroll of his own: ten years of victories, set against Peugeot’s one season. Behind him a red sun is setting with a scowl.

The joke rests on numbers the 1908 Tour de France made true. Peugeot riders won every one of its 14 stages and took the first four places overall. The sheet does not name the rider. Dealers who have sold this design identify him as Lucien Petit-Breton, who won that Tour on a Peugeot, and the face fits, but the poster leaves it to the reader.]