Salesman's Sample Book of French Wine and Liqueur Labels

Bruxelles: Myncke Freres Lithographie. Cloth. Very Good. Colorful album of every type of paper pasted onto a wine and liqueur bottle. We haven't counted the number of samples, but there are easily 1,000 pieces of such paper, with 120 pages with labels, seldom less than half a dozen on the page, and often well over that number. N.d., early to mid-20th century. Oblong 4to. 38 by 36 cm. The printing process for many of the labels was chromolithography. The style was widely varied, as the printer surely wanted to demonstrate its range. Sometimes the samples include an actual company, or vinyard name, but most often the labels are generic, with the company name and other relevant information to be added. We are confident this is a salesman's sample book, and not merely a collector's album, because there are generally small stamps mounted next to the label or group of labels with a stock number and a price. We are not sure exactly what the prices mean, not just the currency value at the time, but also, the quantity of such labels involved. We can attribute this to Myncke Freres because many of the labels actually have the company's name in small print. But also there is a letter and envelope loosely inserted in the album. The letter is dated January 1950. From the letterhead of the letter, it is apparent that the company specialized in printing labels, and it is obvious that the wine industry was a substantial part of their business. The company's roots went back to 1878, and it continued in business, in some form, until 2012. Condition: Cloth cover with wear, including fraying and a closed tear, lower front joint. Obvious here and there that some labels originally in the album have vanished, but generally the album comes off as nearly complete. One can say the album is both unusually neat for such an album, with labels carefully, symmetrically and/or attractively arranged on the page, but there is nonetheless an inevitable scrappiness to the appearance of the album. Pages are age toned, and there is a moderate amount of soiling, which most will find more than acceptable.