Raleigh c.1895 Poster — Raleigh Cycles, 27 Avenue de la Grande Armée

— Poster —
RALEIGH
CYCLES
27
AVENUE DE LA GRANDE ARMÉE
PARIS

[Printed at the lower right:]

Imp. CERF, 12 Rue Ste Anne, PARIS

[The museum’s CARNAVALET stamp is struck on the paper near the front wheel.]

[A young woman dressed as Pierrette, in a black ruff, a black pointed hat with pompons, a short black tutu, black stockings and long white gloves, rides straight toward the viewer on a bicycle seen head-on, its front wheel drawn as a long ellipse below her. At the right Pierrot, in a white costume with red pompon buttons and a ruff, stands with a mandolin under his arm and a finger to his lips, watching her go. The title is set in tall black letters edged in red inside a double frame.

The sheet speaks the language of the Paris music hall rather than the road. The figures are the stock characters of pantomime, and the joke is that Pierrette has a bicycle and Pierrot has only his mandolin. The address is the Raleigh agency on the avenue de la Grande Armée, a few doors from the Peugeot house at number 32.]