Catalog Archive
Auction 185, Lot 31

"Le Tour du Monde en 120 Images Grand Concours du Chocolat Menier"

Subject: World

Period: 1956 (circa)

Publication:

Color: Printed Color

Size:
42 x 23 inches
106.7 x 58.4 cm
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This attractive and novel pictorial map of the world was created by J.B. Jannot and published by Agence Francaise de Propagande as a promotional item for Menier Chocolat. Highly decorative, the map is filled with vignettes, inset maps of Israel, India and Tibet, the Belgian Congo, and is centered on a colorful 16-point compass rose. The most prominent feature of the map is a red line weaving through the continents that symbolizes the path of Jacqueline, Menier's imaginary spokesperson, on a world tour beginning and ending in Paris. Readers could collect games pieces (presumably by buying their chocolates) corresponding to the 120 stops on her journey, and add them to the table at bottom. These clues would collectively help to solve three puzzles - here shown as enigme no. 1, 2 and 3. Once the three enigmes were solved, the bottom portion of the sheet could be cut off and mailed in to Menier for a prize drawing. While this promotional map was an innovative way to encourage chocolate sales, it was apparently not enough as the company was nearing its end at the time this map was published. In 1959, the family left the management team and by 1965 it merged with Cacao Barry. This example is accompanied by 32 of the original game pieces, cut to fit the spaces at bottom.

References:

Condition: B+

Bold color, issued folding with very light toning and some short separations and light wear along the folds.

Estimate: $240 - $300

Sold for: $120

Closed on 11/17/2021

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