Adieu, Postcards of Bygone French Marques

July/Aug 2019 edition
Issue #6 AutoMobilia Resource Magazine
Bonnie Singer - Guest Columnist

In the early years of the 20th century, one of the most popular and economical forms of advertising was the picture postcard.  Beautiful images spanning the Art Nouveau and later Art Deco eras were produced by noted illustrators and poster artists of the day, and mailed across the world on the simple postcard.  Coinciding with this artistic period was the burgeoning automobile industry.  In the first decade of the century, men of wealth partnered with engineers to create distinctive vehicles, though numerous, these companies lasted only short spans.  Surviving today are the postcards, reminders of bygone marques, and prized by many collectors.  The U.S. and several European nations were home to hundreds of now defunct auto makers, and some of the most iconic vintage postcards are of the early French autos. 

 




​Sizaire et Naudin was a marque pioneering light sports and racing cars, founded by the Sizaire brothers and their friend, engineer Louis Naudin in 1903.  Their successes were mainly racing from 1906-1911, before the brothers left to start other companies, though the original enterprise lasted another decade beyond their departure.  The postcard with an illustration by Fonseca is a striking image of this short-lived marque.

​Unic was founded in 1905 by Georges Richard, and funded by Baron Henri de Rothschild to produce light cars and taxis.  With Richard’s death in 1922 the company began producing larger commercial vehicles. 1937 was their last year of passenger car production.  In 1966 the company was acquired by Fiat.  Artists producing early advertising images for this marque included Mercier, de Losques, Mich and Henry Le Monnier, whose 1928 illustration is shown here.      

​Delahaye had a 60-year history of successes and disappointments.  The early autos had a devoted following for racing from 1896-1906, after which racing was sidelined until 1933 in favor of passenger and commercial vehicles.  Sadly, post-World War II sales fell largely due to prohibitive taxes in France on luxury cars.  Delahaye was taken over by Hotchkiss in 1954, and the illustrious name was dropped in 1956.  However, this popular marque was advertised on postcards with some of the most memorable graphics, such as the “Tentation” (temptation) image by J. Stall.

De Dion-Bouton was founded in 1883 making steam cars initially, but producing internal combustion engines 10 years later.  By 1900 the company was the largest auto manufacturer in the world, and in 1904 with 1,300 employees produced 2,000 cars and many times that number of engines, all hand built, for automakers across Europe.  But the company struggled after World War I, and ceased passenger car production in 1932. A number of wonderful advertising postcards were created in the early years, none more interesting than a series of hold-to-light cards.  This genre of postcard shows one illustration when viewed in normal light, but when held close to a strong light source changes the illustration in some manner.  The De Dion-Bouton postcards, when held to the light, reveal small cars driving across the moon.  Two illustrations of this shown as slideshows below:

With a postcard too scarce and charming to leave out of this group, across the border from France was a late starter in the Belgian motor industry, Imperia.  From 1912-1923 the company was licensed to produce the Abadal, a Spanish car modeled on the Hispano-Suiza.  In limited production for barely more than a decade, the automobile is memorialized with this rarely seen postcard.

Prices for illustrated postcards advertising automobile models and manufacturers vary greatly by artist, rarity and condition.  Those shown here range from about $40-50 for the De Dion-Bouton hold-to-light cards, to approximately $150-300 for the others.

Bonnie Singer

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