by catpaw | 14 Sep, 2024
Pierre Pérignon, better known to the world as Dom Pérignon, died September 14, 1715.
Dominican monk Pérignon was in charge of making wine for Hautvillers Abbey.
Contrary to popular wine mythology, he did not create the Dom Pérignon brand. The champagne we know by that name was created by Moët & Chandon in 1921 and named in his honour.
If he didn’t invent the vin gris, nor the bottle, nor the sparkling, nor the cork, what is he even good for??? Dom Pérignon was simply one of the best wine makers of France, and a very famous one at that.
Dom Pérignon: Epic Champagne Monk Life and Symbol of Luxury (uncorkchampagne.com)
There are no good stamps featuring Pérignon but one excellent one celebrating champagne.
Olympic champion Ms. Eleanor Helm excluded from American team.
She had drunk too much champagne…
Maroc Morning newspaper 1936
Champagne Girl
part of the French Life and Landmarks series
Issued by French post in 1938
Designer: André Spitz Engraver: Antonin Delzers
The Champagne Girl stamp could very well have referred to record breaking gold medal athlete Eleanor Holm, although it didn’t. Holm was a top American swimmer, nicknamed “The Torpedo” and a sure bet to win gold in the 1936 Berlin Olympics. A fan favourite, she was known for her athletic abilities, her nightclub lifestyle and love of jazz. Oh and champagne.
She was on her way to the Berlin Olympics, along with the rest of the US team, when she ran afoul of the prudish standards about how a woman should behave, and the puritanical views of the head of the US Olympic committee. As the S.S. Manhattan steamed out to sea, Holm was invited to a party thrown by the Press Corp in the first class suites. There she enjoyed dancing and music, won a pile of money on dice games (rumoured to be a couple hundred dollars) and sipped champagne throughout the night. Before the party was in full swing, the women’s team chaperone tried to shuffle the energetic Holm off to bed at a ghastly early hour: “This chaperone came up to me and told me it was time to go to bed. God, it was about 9 o’clock, and who wanted to go down in that basement to sleep anyway? So I said to her: ‘Oh, is it really bedtime? Did you make the Olympic team or did I?’”
Holm was a married woman of independent means and took a very dim view of the way women were treated as children who needed to be minded. The chaperone scurried off and complained to Avery Brundage, US Olympic team president and all round cramp in Eleanor’s life. He didn’t like Eleanor. He didn’t like her independence and certainly didn’t like her enjoyment of the sparkly wine. She was setting a terrible example for the other athletes in his mind and the next morning he booted her from the team. Nothing Eleanor or her teammates could say would change Brundage’s mind. She was off the team.
— Cette femme est trop drôle! German Crown Prince describing Holm in 1936 Photo of Eleanor Holm in 1936
“That’s all I was doing. At home it was my custom to have a glass of wine or champagne every day after a workout.” Eleanor Holm 1936
News of her removal made the news around the world. Her fellow athletes petitioned to have her re-instated as did American fans, but Brundage would not be moved. Holm had the last laugh much to Brundage’s dismay, when the International News Service hired her as their official Olympic correspondent. She found herself reporting on the games and hobnobbing with royalty and all the important people of the day. She had free run of the games as well as an open invitation to all the big social events during the Olympics.
American swimmer Eleanor Holm, who was removed from the United States Olympic delegation for liking too much champagne, was immediately hired as a reporter by a major New York evening newspaper. Eleanor Holm looked at everything from a cinematic perspective. Here are two proofs: The most stylish athlete on the American team is 400 meter hurdler Glen Hardin. He is a physically perfect exemplar of manhood and, for this reason, remarkably gifted as a screen actor. It constitutes a famous advertisement for the men of America.
And this account of a conversation in English by the former crown prince, Wilhelm:
Well, royal highness, you are just as natural as the rest of us mere mortals. You should make movies. You have an ideal face for films.
But the Crown Prince shortened the interview by declaiming, in German, to the people who were presented to him at the same time as the impertinent Eleanor:
This woman is so funny!
Le Miroir des sports 1936-11-03
Le Miroir des sports : publication hebdomadaire illustrée, p. 15 1936-11-03
http://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb38728672
The publicity about her exit from the team helped her career enormously post ’36 Olympics as well. Holm would later recount how her dismissal made her more famous than had she just won another medal. She went on to have, by all accounts, a vibrant and fascinating life that included appearing in 4 movies, a staring role in Aquacades (a swimming revue), thumbed her nose at Nazis, had a singing career, and used a Rembrandt to prevent her soon to be ex from coming back into the apartment when she tossed him out. Hopefully she was sipping a glass of champagne when she propped the painting under the door handle and called her husband to let him know what would happen if he tried to force his way in.
By 1984 it was reported she no longer drank champagne, but did enjoy dry whites on occasion until her death in 2014.
It wasn’t recorded which champagne Holm drank that fateful night in 1936, but if you’re going to go out in a blaze of publicity, Dom Perignon would be a wise choice.
Eleanor Holm Whalen, 30’s Swimming Champion, Dies – The New York Times (nytimes.com)
by catpaw | 12 Sep, 2024
On September 12, 1940, 4 young French teens opened up a cavern and discovered the wonderous Lascaux Cave Paintings.
The caves became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1979.
LASCAUX DORDOGNE + cancel
Issued April 29, 2019 by LaPoste France
Designed and engraved by Elsa Catelin (Yes, I’m still geeking out over her work).
Over 6,000 copies of this stamp were sold in the first day alone.
Halfway up the hill that rises above the town of Montignac was a foxes’ den, the possible entrance to an underground passageway that, according to local legend, led to the Lascaux manor. A young apprentice mechanic named Marcel Ravidat made the first attempt to explore this opening, but had to put off the attempt for lack of the appropriate tools. Four days later, on 12 September, he returned with three other boys from the village, Jacques Marsal, Georges Agnel and Simon Coencas. They enlarged the hole and Marcel slipped down into a small vertical shaft. He landed on a cone of scree and slid all the way to the bottom. His three friends joined him. By the light of a hastily constructed lamp, they walked along a gallery some thirty metres long. As the passageway narrowed, they spied the first paintings in what is now known as the Axial Gallery. They explored every part of the cave, whose walls were covered in a fabulous bestiary, finally coming to halt before a black hole that led downwards to other parts of the cave. The next day they returned with a rope, which they uncoiled into the hole in the floor. Marcel was the first to lower himself down the eight-metre-deep shaft. There, at the base, he discovered the scene of the man confronting the bison.
The discovery | Lascaux cave (culture.gouv.fr)
by catpaw | 9 Sep, 2024
On September 9, 1585 Armand Jean du Plessis, known in the history books as Cardinal Richelieu, was born.
Although the young Armand Jean du Plessis did not originally want to have a career in the Church, he did have a thirst for power and saw religious positions as a way of achieving that goal. King Henri III of France and Poland rewarded Richelieu’s father for his military service by granting the family the bishopric of Luçon. In 1606, King Henri IV named Richelieu the Bishop of Luçon, a position he was too young for. As a result, he sought a special dispensation from the Pope in Rome, and became Bishop in 1607.
Cardinal de Richelieu · L’Homme Rouge: Cardinal Richelieu and the Control of Print Culture in France during the Ancien Régime · Centre for Renaissance and Reformation Studies (CRRS) Rare Book Collection (utoronto.ca) This is an excellent, and entertaining thumbnail sketch of Richelieu’s life as a French statesman and the power he wielded.
Two Richelieu stamps have been issued by the French post office. The first is from their 1935 Famous People series 2. It’s a classic example of early French design and engraving by Achlile Ouvré.
Armand Jean du Plessis Cardinal de Richelieu (1585-1642)
Famous People series II
Released by France 1935
Designer and engraver Achlile Ouvré
The second stamp was released in 1974 and featured Richelieu in all his finery, The designer used a portrait of Richelieu by Philippe de Champaigne, a founding member of the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture and a leading artist in France at the time. He produced an entire series of members of the French court as well as leading society members. The portrait is owned by National Museum in Warsaw.
This stamp shows a distinct 1970s style of printing, with the colours not as clean and bold as they are now. It used a technique called recess printing. You can read more about the 4 main printing techniques here The Four Main Printing Processes of Postage Stamps (empirephilatelists.com). The stamp doesn’t do justice to the original painting, with all its brilliant, intense colours used by de Champaigne to bring Cardinal de Richelieu to life. The recess printing created a hallow effect around Richelieu’s head and the right side of his robes.
Cardinal de Richelieu (1602-1674). By Philippe de Champaigne
Released in 1974
Designer Robert Cami
by catpaw | 22 Aug, 2024
French composer Claude Debussy was born August 22, 1862
Considered one of the great innovative composers of the 20th century
Certified copy of Claude Debussy’s birth certificate from the register of deeds of birth, year 1862, N°239, of the city of Saint-Germain-en-Laye
courtesy Bibliothèque nationale de France
Debussy has appeared on a number of stamps, from around the world. Two sets stand out. The first was the French charity stamp For the unemployed intellectuals. Claude Debussy. The money raised from the sale went to the Unemployed Intellectuals Relief Fund.
Designed & engraved by Jules Piel in 1941, it was part of a series that began in 1936. Piel was both a designer and engraver, who engraved three Marianne stamps. If you look closely at the image, note Pan playing his reed flute to the right of Debussy. Pan was the Greek god of many things including music.
The second set is a new release from Jersey. They issued an extensive set of stamps celebrating Debussy’s stay on the island in the summer of 1904. 
In a letter, Debussy expressed his contentment: “But this country is a delight, I’m at peace which is better still, and I’m completely free to work, which hasn’t been the case for a long time…”
“The sea has behaved beautifully towards me and shown me all her guises.”
“I’m still in an absolute daze.”
FOCUS: Debussy’s tranquil summer in Jersey | Bailiwick Express Jersey
The artwork is by Jersey artist Will Bertram. The set includes an FDCs, a souvenir sheet, and some fabulous stamp packs.
Each illustration contains highlights of both Claude Debussy’s stay and his music. From the Jersey 2024 article:
The background features various points of interest that highlight Debussy’s music scores. There’s a lot to digest, so I’ll rely on Jersey Post’s concise writeups.
The 6 stamps “incorporate elements of Debussy’s sheet music into the background of each stamp. The Portelet Bay stamp features L’isle Joyeuse and the pair of 98p stamps, La Corbière and St Brelade’s Bay, feature La Mer. The Portelet Bay stamp features Estampes (Pagodes), Havre des Pas features L’isle Joyeuse and Grand Hotel stamp, Claire de Lune.”
The mini sheet “incorporate excerpts of the score for La Mer into the background. The style of the wave featured on the miniature sheet takes inspiration from Hokusai’s iconic Under the Wave off Kanagawa, also known as The Great Wave. Debussy collected a selection of Japanese artefacts during his time as a student of Rome between 1885-1887. One such piece was a print of The Great Wave, which Debussy kept on his studio wall.”
The presentation pack includes the Great Wave, and iconic Jersey sites, and the Debussy quote “The sea has behaved beautifully towards me and shown me all her guises.
The FDC includes Debussy with an umbrella, bits of a music score and the quote “But this country is a delight, I’m at peace which is better still, and I’m completely free to work,
by catpaw | 5 Jun, 2024
June 5, 1883, the Orient Express leaves Paris’ Gare de l’Est to Vienna for the first regularly scheduled trip.
The ‘Express d’Orient’, linking Paris to Istanbul (then called Constantinople) was inaugurated in June 1883. This train was not direct: crossing the Danube in Bulgaria was done by ferry. A second train would take the passengers to the Black Sea, then a steamer to Istanbul, taking more than 3 days altogether. the Orient Express (wagons-lits-diffusion.com)
Orient Express, 140 Years
Issued by France February 10, 2023
Designers: Broll and Prascida
You can see more from Broll and Prascida on their website TIMBRE ORIENT-EXPRESS – Broll & Prascida (brollandprascida.com)
The soon to be famed Orient Express was the brainchild of Belgian founder of Wagons-Lits, Georges Nagelmackers. Nagelmackers was enchanted with the train service offered by Pullman sleepers when he traveled in the US. He spotted the potential market in Europe that could cater to the luxury market. He tested his idea on October 4, 1883, with a select group of 30 guests that included diplomats, journalists and rai executives/
With the launch of regular service in June 1883, Nagelmackers sparked the golden age of rail travel.
