You need to look up to appreciate the fine collection of signs at the Musée Carnavalet, particularly the ones acquired at auction.
Directoire style, late 19th centur. Bookseller's sign, "À l'enseigne du livre rouge et de la plume blanche", painted metal, sinuous form mobile plaque, 131 x 74 x 6 cm/51.6 x 29.1 x 2.4 in.
Paris, Drouot, March 18, 2019. Lucien Paris auction house
Result: €4,000 - Acquisition of the Musée Carnavalet, Paris.
On May 30, after over four years' restoration work complicated by the pandemic, the Musée Carnavalet was able to fling wide its doors once more. After crossing through the entrance pavilion, visitors come to the sign gallery, now magnificently restored—walls, containers and all—and walk under banners which, through they wave in the Parisian breeze no longer, have found a resting place here worthy of their history. Characterizing the urban landscape as much as fountains, public benches and news-stands, they are now displayed in two rooms, suggesting a stroll down a Paris street and inviting us to wander from one shop to another. Already before the Commune of Paris , in the chaos of the demolition work, the fledgling museum (begun in 1866 and opened in 1880) saw the lack of interest in them, and starting collecting a large number. In July 1914, a room was dedicated to them through…
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