Huet-Perdoux, imprimeur-libraire du lycée et marchand de papier, rue Royale, no. 5, à Orlèans

[Orléans: Robert-Frédéric Huet-Perdoux, between 1796 and 1815]

1 trade card | 82 x 149 mm

A trade card for the Orléans seller of books, papers, notebooks, writing supplies, playing cards, almanacs, and sundry other items typical of the general stationer. After a stint with Didot in Paris, Robert-Frédéric married the daughter of bookseller Pierre-Fiacre Perdoux in 1795 and took over the business the following the year. He ran afoul of the law in 1815, left for South America in 1816, and died in 1817, after which his widow continued the business. Here printed on tinted paper—no surprise from a business that sold "smooth paper in all colors." ¶ These printed trade cards were “used by the early shopkeeper as an aide-mémoire for his customers…The printed-paper version was an all-purpose jotter, bearing the tradesman’s name and address—or, before the introduction of street numbering, a long-winded indication of where he was to be found." They were broadly useful, serving also "as an invoice and receipt form, as a homing guide for messengers, and as memorandum sheet for quotations, price lists, and other handwritten business fragments” (Rickards). ¶ The forerunner of the modern business card, and an unlikely survival. We find no other copies.

CONDITION: Printed on the recto only of piece of bluish laid paper, the text surrounded by a decorative border. ¶ Some paper and leather remnants adhered to the lefthand side, obscuring some text; small hole in the left edge, affecting the border.

REFERENCES: VIAF ID 2526571 (for Robert-Frédéric's CV); Maurice Rickards, The Encyclopedia of Ephemera (Routledge, 2000) p. 334 (cited above)

Item #812