Description

Advertising plaster bust - Au Gagne Petit - Art Nouveau style

Elegant painted plaster female bust, typical of the charm of Art Nouveau, with its soft curves and dreamy face.

This type of bust was intended to decorate counters or shop windows, playing an advertising role before lithographed posters became widespread.

It served as an advertising medium for the ‘Au Gagne Petit’ store in Château-Thierry, a large Parisian chain that had a warehouse in Fère-en-Tardenois, as shown in these two old postcards, on which the following can be read on the façade:

‘Warehouse of the Gagne Petit department stores of Château-Thierry’

The first postcard shows the shop in 1917, while the second shows the shop in 1918 after the damage inflicted by the First World War during the Second Battle of the Marne. The village was on the front line, and the shop suffered greatly. It reopened after the war and later became Les Nouvelles Galeries. Today, it is still a shop, but a florist has taken the place of the galleries.

This two postcards are included with the bust.

Formerly placed on a counter or in a shop window, this type of object attracted the attention of passers-by and gave the shop an elegant and modern image.

Signed C. Habock, the sculpture retains its original paintwork, with warm colours and a beautiful patina of age to give the illusion of terracotta.

C. Habock was a sculptor/decorative modeller from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, specialising mainly in decorative sculptures and commercial subjects.

Dimensions: Height 26 cm – Width 17 cm 

An object steeped in poetry, combining art, history and commerce

History of the shop:

Before 1900:

Maison Roger Petel – independent shop specialising in duvets, bedding and feather products.

Around 1900–1917/18:

Transformed into a warehouse for the Gagne-Petit department store in Château-Thierry.

The façade still bears the words ‘ancienne Maison Roger Petel’ (former Maison Roger Petel), signalling local continuity.

Between the wars (1920–1930):

Modernisation and change of name to Nouvelles Galeries au Gagne-Petit, adopting the model of the provincial department store.

1938:

Postcard confirms that only Nouvelles Galeries is mentioned on the façade on antique potscards.

After the Second World War – 1970s–1990s:

Like many small provincial branches, the store gradually disappeared, a victim of the restructuring of the Nouvelles Galeries chain and modern commerce.

Today:

The building houses a florist, continuing the tradition of local commerce on the site for over 120 years.