Description:  This Unique Mechanical Victorian Trade Card is for "Au Bon Marche".  The card pulls out to reveal a dog pulling hot dog out of a basket. There is a girl with her dog as well. Nice colors and gorgeous gold edging. The card has been previously pasted into a scrapbook. 

 “Au Bon Marche” the store was founded as a small shop in Paris during 1838. The founder was Aristide Boucicaut. It was a fixed-price department store from about 1850. It was a successful business, and a new building was constructed for the store first by Louis-Auguste Boileau in 1869 at 24, rue de Sèvres, where it remains today. Alexandre Laplanche ornamented Boileau's ironwork technology. Louis-Charles Boileau, his son, continued the store in the 1870s, consulting the firm of Gustave Eiffel for parts of its structure. Louis-Hippolyte Boileau, the grandson of Louis-Auguste Boileau, worked on an extension to the store in the 1920s. A picture of the store is on the card."  

"The Exposition Universelle of 1900 was a world's fair held in Paris, France, from 15 April to 12 November 1900, to celebrate the achievements of the past century and to accelerate development into the next. The style that was universally present in the Exposition was Art Nouveau. The fair, visited by nearly 50 million, displayed many machines, inventions, and architecture that are now nearly universally known, including the Grande Roue de Paris Ferris wheel, Russian Nesting Dolls, diesel engines, talking films, escalators, and the telegrapones(the first magnetic audio recorder.)  The 1900 Paris Exposition Universelle was so expensive to organize and run that the cost per visitor ended up being about six hundred frances more than the price of admission. The exhibition lost a grand total of 82,000 francs after six months in operation. Many Parisians had invested money in shares sold to raise money for the event and therefore lost their investment. With a much larger expected turn out the exhibit sites had gone up in value. Continuing to pay rent for the sites became increasingly hard for concessionaires as they were receiving fewer customers than anticipated. The concessionaires went on strike, which ultimately resulted in the closure of a large part of the exposition. To resolve the matter, the concessionaires were given a fractional refund of the rent they had paid. The financial consequences of the 1900 Exposition Universelle were devastating for many Parisians and led to the decision to end the streak of international fairs with the 1900 loss. The Art Nouveau (“New Art”) style began to develop in the 1880s and became fashionable in Europe and the United States during the 1890s. The art form takes inspiration from the natural world, drawing references from botanical studies and deep sea organisms. Fluid twisting, curving lines and a “whiplash” effect are the trademarks of the natural art form. The art form took shape in works ranging from painting to sculpture and most notably architecture, appearing famously throughout the 1900 Paris Exposition Universelle. Structures such as the Porte Monumentale entrance."  

Measure 5-1/2" W x 3-3/4" H. Not expanded. 

Condition: Corners and edges are worn. Acceptable Condition. 

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