Rare and authentic wall sign panel
Pharmacy and fitting brand - Miss Hélène Deux, Bandagiste & 1st class Herbalist
Officine sign panel in painted wood from the 19th-20th century hinge: 1890-1920.
The sign is made of 2 reinforced wood panels at the back. There is a space between the 2 panels.
The sign features a superb art lettering entirely made freehand by a letter painter (superb contrasts of blue and brown, neat full and loose)
Witness to the history of pharmacy and ancient orthopaedics: the bandagist shaping leather and frames for corsets and restraints, and the herbalist 1st class, a profession that has disappeared since the abolition of the diploma in 1941.
Description
Rare and authentic wall sign panel
Pharmacy and fitting brand - Miss Hélène Deux, Bandagiste & 1st class Herbalist
The sign is made of 2 reinforced wood panels at the back. There is a space between the 2 panels.
Rare piece of medical history and pharmacy, this period sign panel made of wood painted with a yellow background and blue, red, and brown typography bears all the original hand-drawn inscriptions. It bears witness to a fascinating and vanished aspect of the art of healing: herbalism.
Melle Hélène DEUX
Bandagiste - Herboriste de 1ère classe Diplômée de la Faculté de Médecine et de Pharmacie de Lille
De 10h. à 12h.½ et de 17h. à 19h. et sur Rendez-vous
S’adresser Maison Pierre LEFEBVRE
(Bandagiste: orthopedic technician)
Dated to the pivotal period between the 19th and 20th centuries, approximately between 1890 and 1920, this piece highlights the superposition of two artisanal and paramedical expertises of the time:
Herbalist 1st class:
Unlike the second-class certificate, which was issued after a simple examination before a departmental jury and strictly limited the exercise to the department of origin, the first-class diploma was obtained directly after a course validated in a faculty (as here in Lille), conferring on its holder the right to practice throughout French territory and ensuring a thorough scientific mastery of botany and medicinal plants.
This profession was then experiencing its hours of tension in the face of relentless lobbying by pharmacists, who eventually obtained the abolition of the profession under the Vichy regime in 1941. There were no more diplomas awarded in herbalism after this date.
The law of 1941 officially abolished the degree of herbalist, while granting the last holders already graduated the right to practice until the end of their lives.
The definitive extinction of this profession ended with the disappearance of the very last historical holder of the diploma, Marie Roubieu, who died in 2018 at the age of 97.
The bandagiste: (orthopedic technician)
This is the ancestor of the orthopedist and the modern prosthetist; the bandagist was a technician of the body and raw materials. His art was based on the work of leather, whalebone and metal frames to shape by hand orthopedic corsets, support belts and custom-made restraining devices, requiring an intimate knowledge of human anatomy.
The know-how of the painter in letters:
The execution of this sign is entirely based on the art of freehand painting, carried out by a lettering craftsman: the letter painter.
Unlike a typography made up of movable characters in lead or wood, each line, serif and scroll was directly hand-painted on the wooden panel.
Far from the coldness of an industrial print, the composition seduces by its magnificent manual typography, its neat full and loose lines, its elegant serifs and its superb decorative scrolls, typical of that time.
Pierre Lefèbvre House:
The inscription "S’adresser Maison Pierre Lefèbvre" as well as the presence of specific office hours clearly indicate the periods during which Miss Hélène Deux held her consultations or her counter within this establishment, whether it was a bandagistery house, orthopedics or a partner pharmacy. She did not have a shop in person.
Very beautiful sign
Size: 73x33cm
The inscriptions are a bit erased on S’adresser Maison Pierre LEFEBVRE
