Lot #818: Two Vintage France Postcards - 1910s Lost Heritage Postcard "1914 Estaires (Nord) Église" - 1900s Art Postcard "Concepcion Immaculée" (Louvre)

Two Vintage France Postcards: (1) One Vintage 1910s France "Lost Heritage" postcard, unused, showing a Church with caption "1914 Estaires (Nord) Église - Cote Grand-Rue" indicating publisher as "Carte Postale Impr. par E Le Deley, Paris". No Stamp. No Postmark. Never Postally Used. This Le Deley specimen is a poignant historical document, capturing Estaires in the final moments before the town was largely erased during the First World War. As a product of one of Paris’s most prestigious printing houses, it represents the "Golden Age" of French topographical photography. The Publisher, Ernest Le Deley, Paris, a titan of the French postcard industry, operated out of the Rue des Ursulines in Paris. Le Deley was known for his "Heliotype" and "Photocolore" processes, but this card likely utilizes a fine-screen Collotype. Estaires, located in the Nord department near the Belgian border, was a bustling textile center. This view of the Church (St. Vaast) in its original, pre-modernized state—where the church served as the visual and civic anchor of the community. Because the card is dated 1914, it is a "Before" snapshot. Estaires was almost completely destroyed during the Battle of the Lys in 1918. This helps date the card from the period immediately after WWI so that this card preserves the "Lost Heritage" of a town that had to be entirely rebuilt in the 1920s. (2) One Vintage 1900s France Art postcard, unused, showing a painting of the Virgin Mary in a crescent moon, surrounded by cherubs, bathed in a golden, celestial light, with the caption "La Concepcion Immaculée de la Vierge" by B.-E. Murillo published by "Musée de Louvre". The back is labelled "Carte Postale" and warns "Tous les pays étrangers n'acceptent pas la Correspondence au recto. Se renseigner au Poste." This Musée du Louvre specimen replicates one of the most celebrated works of the Spanish Baroque master Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, specifically his Immaculate Conception of the Virgin (often referred to as the "Soult" version), a cornerstone of the Louvre's Spanish collection for much of the 19th and 20th centuries. before its return to Spain after WWII. In the early 20th century, the Musée du Louvre (Paris) was not just a museum but a major publisher of high-quality art reproductions. The "Correspondence au recto" warning provides a vital diagnostic for dating the card. Before 1904–1905, international postal rules often required the back of the card to be used only for the address, with the message written on the "recto" (the front/image side). This card likely dates to the transition period when France was warning travelers that some foreign countries still held these rigid rules. This postcard therefore likely dates to the Early Golden Age (c. 1903–1906). Dimensions: 9 mm x 14 mm Pickup category timeslot {A}