Accession No. RARE.2022.0064: Purchased, 2022 October
[identification of item], Booklet of Buvards (Advertising Blotters) Offered to Customers of the Grands Magasins au Louvre, SPEC.RARE.MMS.0356, Rare Books & Manuscripts Library, Ohio State University
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Processed by: Lindsay Resnick, 2022 November; Finding aid written by: Lindsay Resnick, 2022 November
The Grands Magasins au Louvre was a department store chain based in Mulhouse, France, with satellite locations in cities across the area known, as of 2022, as the Grand-Est region. The original store was built in Mulhouse in 1903, and locations in Metz, Hayange, Rombas, Moyeuvre, and Joeuf soon followed. At the time of its opening, the Grands Magasins au Louvre was the largest department store in eastern France. The chain went defunct at some point during the mid-20th century but it is unclear exactly when. It should be noted that there is a distinct entity with a similar name, Grands Magasins du Louvre, based in Paris, that is entirely unconnected to this department store chain.
The Booklet of Buvards (Advertising Blotters) Offered to Customers of the Grands Magasins au Louvre, dated after 1924, is a booklet entirely composed of promotional ink blotters. The blotters advertise products sold at businesses in and around Mulhouse, mostly those sold at the Grands Magasins au Louvre. Ink blotters are absorbent sheets of paper used to soak up excess ink written on other sheets of paper using dip pens or fountain pens, helping the ink to dry faster and prevent smearing. The booklet is written in French with small amounts of German on some of the advertisements, owing to the fact that the geographical area the store was based in is sandwiched between two German-speaking countries, Switzerland and Germany, and that at the time, a sizable minority of inhabitants of this area spoke German. The cover of the booklet has French writing stating that it was offered freely to the customers of the store.