Rayon d'Or

The Last Word in Lighting

Oct 03, 2022

∙ Paid

Sometimes I yearn for the old days of advertising, such as represented by this beautiful French poster of 1895. A city wall benefits so much by being graced by an ad like this one! We tend to look at it as only art but it really was serious advertising at the same time. I know it would have worked on me anyway.

No matter, I know I like it and I know I’m not alone. To produce such a tastefully erotic poster such as that above in order to hawk a mere light bulb demonstrates to me a finely tuned sense of alignment with all that is good in the universe. Of course, in those days the light bulb was yet a thing of wonder and deserved such homage but still . . .

You’ve probably seen other works by this popular graphic artist, Jean de Paleologue, who always signed his work with a “PAL” somewhere on it. He was a Romanian that came to Paris seeking employment during the Belle Epoque, a city in which he obviously found his natural habitat. He produced a plethora of equally beautiful posters for such clients as the Folies Bergere, bicycle manufacturers, and various tobacco products (some of you may have seen his work for Zig Zag). Eventually, he moved to the United States and continued in much the same vein over here. His work is much appreciated these days and original posters by “PAL” will always fetch a pretty penny in auctions.

To purchase the mere card, rumor has it you’ll find it HERE.

The Eklectika NFT collection is now launched. This is going to be (as the name suggests) a survey of my photography for the past 50 years, with some oddities thrown in and I promise it will be genuinely eclectic. If you’ve thought about collecting NFTs now is the time - it’s a buyers market!