i have a poster that i bought.  this poster it titled "canabec en
caux-le marche (en normandie)"  it is poster size and depicts a market
scene in a square in front of a church.  on the bottom left side of
this poster are the words "imprime par les ETS.  rotophot 3&5 rue
Margfoy Paris." with a signature of the artist.  the signature is a
guess as it is scrawled.  " C. Matossy or Matassy"  On the right
bottom of the poster the following is printed.  "printed in france
1933"  Under that phrase is the artists original signature, in a box
in red pencil

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Request for Question Clarification by justaskscott-ga on 22 Dec 2002 09:27 PST

I noticed that you did not ask a specific question with respect to
this poster.  What would you like to know about it?

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Clarification of Question by zeee-ga on 22 Dec 2002 16:53 PST

what i would like to know is what the english translation is.  what is
known about the artist and the company that printed it.  the search
that i made dead ended.  i could not even find the street, rue
margfoy, on a paris map search.  actually any info on the provenance
of this piece or info on the artist. from there i may be able to
estimate the value.

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Request for Question Clarification by scriptor-ga on 22 Dec 2002 17:43 PST

Dear zeee,

Is it this poster?
http://www.affiche-francaise.com/img/MatossyCaudebec.jpg

Regards,
Scriptor

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Clarification of Question by zeee-ga on 22 Dec 2002 21:40 PST

that is it.  wow!

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Request for Question Clarification by scriptor-ga on 23 Dec 2002 05:09 PST

Dear zeee,

Seems I am on the right way. I will collect further information on the
artist and his work. Please be patient, I will soon let you know what
I can tell you about this.

Regards,
Scriptor

Dear zeee,

It was not an easy task to collect at least a bit of information on
this topic; but I found something.

1. About the artist
The artist who created and signed the poster you own was definitely
Pierre Matossy. He was born 15 April 1891 in Bessé-sur-Bray,
département Sarthe, France. Matossy was known for his work as painter,
illustrator, graphic artist and poster artist. He died 25 August 1969
in Ploubazlanec, département Côtes-d'Armor, France.

Among his works were the travel posters "Caudebec-en-Caux" (1933),
which you own, and "Mont St. Michel" (1934).Please click here to see
the Mont St. Michel poster:
http://www.affiche-francaise.com/img3/MatossyMtMichel.JPG

He also designed book covers, like for "Franche-Comté et Monts Jura"
by H. Bejan and D. Brelingard, published by Editions Alpina, Paris
1947. Furthermore, he created illustrations for books, for example the
14 engravings of ancient Greek temples in "Temples Grecs - Maisons des
Dieux", by André Suarès, published by Dantan in Paris, 1937.

2. About the poster's theme
Caudebec-en-Caux is a small town in the Normandy, on the right shore
of the Seine river. It is well known for its colorful market which
takes place every Saturday in front of the cathedral Notre-Dame,
erected 1426-1534 in late Gothic style. So Pierry Matossy used an
attractive motif typical for the region, which is of course ideal for
a travel poster.

3. About the printshop
As I found out, the road in Paris where Rotophot was resident was
actually Rue Marqfoy, with a Q before the F. It is no wonder you have
not been able to locate it - the name of the street was changed from
Rue Marqfoy to Rue Robert Blache on 8 June 1946.
Unfortunately, I have not been able to locate any more information on
Rotophot than that they were making artprints and postcards in the
1930s, and that they had branches in various European cities. The
company does not exist anymore, and the trademark "Rotophot" is not
listed in current trademark directories.

Sources:

Baedeker Reiseführer Frankreich. Published by Karl Baedeker Verlag.
2002. ISBN 3-87504-504-1

Allgemeines Künstlerlexikon, Bio-bibliographischer Index, Band 6.
Published by Saur Verlag, 2000. ISBN 3-598-23916-5

Affiche Francaise: Travel posters - Normandy, Brittany, Chateaux de la
Loire, Paris
http://www.affiche-francaise.com/travel3.html

Livre-Rare-Book: Régionalisme
http://www.livre-rare-book.com/Matieres/pd/7863.html

Antiquariat Barbian: Architektur, Innenarchitektur, Kunstdenkmäler
http://www.antiquariat-barbian.de/kunst.2.html

Ville de Paris: Extrait de la nomenclature officielle des voies de
Paris - Rue Robert Blache
http://www.paris.fr/CARTO/NOMENCLATURE/8254.nom.html

Search terms used:
matossy
://www.google.de/search?q=matossy&hl=de&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&newwindow=1&start=0&sa=N
"rue marqfoy"
://www.google.de/search?hl=de&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&newwindow=1&q=%22rue+marqfoy%22&meta=
Rotophot
://www.google.de/search?q=Rotophot&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=de&btnG=Google-Suche&meta=

Hope this helps!
Regards,
Scriptor

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Request for Answer Clarification by zeee-ga on 23 Dec 2002 10:48 PST

scriptor

great, great job.  thank you.  Has it any value?

zeee

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Clarification of Answer by scriptor-ga on 23 Dec 2002 11:10 PST

Dear zee,

Yes, it would be of value even without the artist's original
signature. I found this very poster offered for sale on the website of
a dealer specialized in original vintage French posters (
http://www.affiche-francaise.com/ ). The price is available by request
only - and that usually means: It's expensive. So, if your exemplar is
in good condition, that alone would make it valuable for a poster
collector. The signature will, without any doubt, raise the value
notably. But I did, alas, not find any indicator for an exact price.

Best regards,
Scriptor

Excellent!!  I wish there were ten stars.  Good, good emails!  To the
point research.  Above what I requested.  kudos.

Is ROTOPHOT  the singular of ROTOPHOTO  ?

i think it was the name of the company that printed the poster.