Saturday, November 10, 2012

G. Richard and Cie, 5 Rue de la Perle, Paris



Surely this is not a stamp. But it was sitting amongst a lot of "real" stamps I found recently on a fleamarket. I'll bet this is the god Hermes, the god of tradesmen and lyars. His attributes and symbols include the winged sandals, a winged cap and his main symbol was the herald's staff, the Greek kerykeion or the Latin caduceus which consisted of two snakes wrapped around a winged staff.

Made me curious to know what it was, definetely not the Greek stamp you might initially mistake it for.

Imprimatur of the 80 Lepta of the “large Hermes heads” with the inscription of the printer Ernest Meyer. Ernest Meyer was a printer, located at 22, rue Verneuil in Paris during the second half of the 19th century. He had been chosen by to print the first large Hermes head stamps of Greece, the Paris Issue.


G. Richard and Cie. seem to have been printers too.

 
This is a fancy cover of a series of books by Victor Hugo (1802-1885), Œuvres, printed by Richard et Cie between 1885-1895. There are 45 volumes and this fantastic binding was realized by Charles Meunier in 1929.
 
I fond that they have also printed and edited postcards. Was that triggering the printing of the Hermes look-a-like stamp?
 
 
Le Grand Hotel-Cafe de la Paix-Place de l'Opera-Paris, Pre 1920 Postcard of Richard & Cie.