Olympic Games/ Prehistory/ Hairdressing/... - Lot 3 - Vermot et Associés

Olympic Games/ Prehistory/ Hairdressing/ Bernadille. Beautifully bound in-12 book (18x11.5): "Esquisses et Croquis Parisiens, petite chronique du temps présent" by Bernadille. Editions Plon, 1876, 400p. TBE. Be careful, this book is a bomb, and not just an anthology of 50 articles by Bernadille (alias Victor Fournel, alias Edmond Guérard, alias Gaston de Varennes) published between 1872 and 1875. This Meusien has an acute gift for all-round observation, and a percussive, cheerful style that takes us into all the worlds of the aftermath of the Commune. This is great art. The baths on the Seine, the proposed ban on acrobats (Léotard), the wrestlers at the Casino Cadet serve as a springboard for his report on the Olympic Hairdressing Games held at the Salle Valentino in front of 3,000 spectators on December 12, 1873. There were 18 competitors, European observers, the competition lasted 25 minutes, and two medals were awarded to the winners. Reading these four hilarious pages, in which Pindar is mentioned, one realizes how much the notion of the Olympic Games was in the air at the time... These Games were perhaps not the first. Elsewhere, the reporter evokes the Club des Coureurs and the Olympic Games... Le Figaro, the Folies Bergère, Tabarin, clarinet players (you'll smile) and Allan-Kardec ride along in reports that are as wry as they are delicious.