Poster as collector's item
Sagot’s tiny shop swiftly became the place to be for collectors of fine-art posters. Aficionados initially had to peel the desired work from the wall or bribe a billposter — now they could buy a pristine copy directly from Sagot. He even offered special, limited edition posters, printed on deluxe paper and signed by the artist.
When a judge threatened to ban Henri Toulouse-Lautrec’s controversial poster La Reine de joie from public display, the shrewd dealer promptly bought up the entire stock so he could sell them at his print shop.
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Poster for the novel Reine de joie, moeurs du demi-monde by Victor Joze, 1892
Jules Chéret, Poster for the Théâtrophone, 1890
Sagot's advertising
Sagot confirmed his shop’s status as the epicentre of modern printmaking by having the leading French artists of the day design his business cards.
The most famous example is Félix Vallotton’s card, which was also used as an advertisement in the leading magazines. The image shows well-to-do print and book collectors flocking to Sagot’s shop window, where the newest of the new was always waiting to be admired.
Félix Vallotton, The Print Lovers (Les amateurs d'estampes), advertisement for Edmond Sagot's gallery, 1892
Further reading
- Librairie Sagot, Catalogue d’affiches illustrées anciennes et modernes, Paris 1891
- André Mellerio, La lithographie originale en couleurs, Paris 1898
- Phillip Dennis Cate et al., The Color Revolution. Color Lithography
in France, 1890-1900, Santa Barbara 1970