Chromo Litho Juggler Women

This is a French Chromo Litho. I mentioned before and this won't be the last time, I am fascinated by circus and juggling and all things that are theater like involving costumes and action. This piece which was an advertisement for some type of French cream or maybe even a small drink such as milk, had a label on it which would peel off and folks in 1880s collected them. Mostly women and girls. The men were collecting stamps so this was for the women. This is a wonderful example and one I cannot help but think how very difficult to create considering the time consuming process involoved in the art form. Here is a definition I found on a British website. There really isn't much online about this process.

Chromo Litho Chromolithography is a printing method. It was the first method capable of producing multi-color prints and prevailed on postcards published in the late 18 and early 1900's. Based on lithography it used print blocks (originally stone slabs) onto which an image was drawn using an oil based medium and with one block (or stone) for each colour. A chemical process then etched away the oil medium free parts of the block leaving the image part for the given colour proud of the surface. The card would be printed in multiple impressions, each block adding another colour layer.

There are still lots of people who collect these now and I think not only women. The images are wonderful and the color is vibrant and rich...