Nineteenth Century Louis Vuitton Trade Card
The birth of an iconic brand: a trade card listing Louis Vuitton's earliest stores, capturing the evolving image of the company.
Very good.
Price: $3,500.00
Nineteenth Century Louis Vuitton Trade Card
"Louis Vuitton is the most visible, the most showy, in a way. Some people think it's terrible, some people love it, some people just have a fascination with it." — Nicolas Ghesquière
Founded in 1854, Louis Vuitton was a trailblazer from the start, designing his trianon canvas trunks to be not only lightweight and waterproof, but stackable. These innovations, however, led - almost from the very inception of the company - to a host of imitations and knock-offs. So by 1876, Vuitton created the striped design seen on this card in order to help distinguish his brand, the beginning of a process that culminated in 1888 with the development of the Damier pattern that remains the cornerstone of the company's look to this day. The card dates to approximately 1885, listing the addresses of Louis Vuitton's iconic Paris store at 1, Rue Scribe, which opened in 1871 in the fashionable district around the Place de l'Opéra; also listed is the London store at 289 Oxford Street – the company's first overseas – which was opened in 1885, but closed after only a few years in favor of new premises in the Strand. A rare and early example of a trade card from one of the most famous and enduring brands in history, capturing the transition to its signature and defining visual identity.
Read more: Alice Gregory, "Nicolas Ghesquière," The New York Times.
The Object
Paris: A. Alexandre [Printer], [ca. 1885]. 3.5'' x 5''. Color lithograph printed on thin card in the shape of a traveling trunk. Verso printed in black on white, repeating the address information in English for Louis Vuitton's Paris and London stores which are given in French on front. Recto with a bit of surface rubbing and some very faint crease lines; verso with scattered adhesions and very minor surface loss (likely from removal from album), unobtrusive.
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