Van Sabben Poster Auction 63

Reffet poster collection 76 A Century-long story of a Billposter’s collection (The unlikely survival of the Reffet Estate of Posters) Seldom have we had a provenance so direct as this wonderful collection that once belonged to Afficheur Paul Jean-Marie Reffet (1882-1915). Paul was an Afficheur active in Paris in the early 19th century, probably in the service of the iconic Grands Magasins Dufayel and the Daude Frères Printers in Paris. The col- lection presented here is probably the spare examples that Paul kept for himself. They make up a diverse selection spanning from ethnographic exhibitions to newspapers. Paul was born in the third arrondissement of Paris on the 26th of October 1882 and found employment as an afficheur in Paris. He was almost certainly in the service of the Grands Magasins Dufayel (see image) and noted how difficult the job was because of having to traverse Paris by train and bike with all his material in his bag. The selection he left behind leaves a glimpse of a Paris long gone, but it also records information unknowingly. Of all these posters it is now certain that they were put up in Paris and date from before 1915. Some of the our personal highlights are, among others of course, Géo Dorival’s breathtaking for an aeronautical exhibition in 1912, (see lotnr. 753). It shows an airman in his Blériot airplane approaching the Grand Palace in Paris, his wings somehow breaking the border. Also the, previously unknown by us, poster for an exhibition in the Jardin d’Acclimatation boasting 180 Guineans, men, women and children, exhibited there. The scene is a jovial cover-up of what is now known to have been a brutal his- tory of the practices in so-called human zoos, (see lotnr. 769). Paul was contracted into the First World War at the recruitment office in the same arrondissement where he was born. He served in the 31st Régiment d'infanterie. After having two feet frozen and contracting typhoid fever Paul passed away at the age of 32 in the military hospital Rébéval of Neufchâteau, 9see photo deadth record). He was buried on Neufchâteau’s military ceme- tery and is recorded as having died for France on the 17th of February 1915. His wife, Jeanne M. Carraz, was 2buried, upon her request, with most of her late husband’s letters. The collection spent the next 100 years folded up in a small box and was inherited by the following generations without much notice and survived 2 world wars, until being finally taken out and consigned at Van Sabben Poster Auctions. This short history of Paul was compiled using the remaining documents and stories that the family kept, as well as the WWI archive records. The col- lection is presented as untouched as possible, but in a handful of cases this wasn’t an option. The storage resulted in visible folds on virtually all pieces from his estate which we feel are a part of the history associated with these posters. Paul (Left) standing with a coworker under a poster for Dufayel, Personal rubber handstamp Paul Reffet Paul’s military death record, showing him as having died for France in 1915 Paul in military service (Left) © Jules Soeters, 2024