Nouvelle Carte de la France

Ephemeral broadsheet advertising a high-end Belgian arms manufacturer.

This vibrant lithographed map of France was designed to catch the eye of audiences at the 1900 Exposition Universelle in Paris. Nearly 50 million visitors made their way through the gates of the World’s Fair, held that year in conjunction with the Summer Olympics. The map uses bright colors to distinguish between the nation’s eighty-nine different departments. A variety of transportation routes, place names, and territorial boundaries are labeled according to the legend in the center-left.

The upper corners and lower half of the sheet contain twelve illustrations of the breaks of double-barrel shotguns, or fowling pieces. The elaborate engraving is accentuated, with the more decorative examples generally commanding higher prices. These firearms were manufactured by the firm of Emile Bernard & Company. According to George Glazer;

“Emile Bernard & Cie. was a Belgian gun manufacturer operated in Liège by Emile Bernard (1867-1935). In 1900, Bernard took over the business of Ferdinand Drissen, a firm founded in 1845. In 1919, the company name was changed to Emile Bernard, Armurier [Gunsmith]. After Bernard’s death in 1935, his widow took it over. It continued operations until at least 1959. The company mainly concentrated on the market for high-end precision hunting weapons, manufactured in the best quality materials and frequently embellished with decorative engraving.”

Source: George Glazer;