Promotion envelopes

Laboratoires Fournier-Frères (Fournier brothers) was a French company that made pharmaceutical products. In the 1950s they published 20 different sets of informative fold-out sheets, entitled (in French, of course) "Brief history of the postcard".
The pages contained images of postcards from around 1900, with an accompanying story. Each set had a specific theme, like music, theater, cars and sports. The rest of the pages promoted in praise their products, including vitamin preparations and antibiotics.
The sets were sent in matching envelopes, which also contained images of old postcards.

I have set number 12 from this series, with the theme "Le Triomphe du Sport" (the Triumph of Sports). The envelope shows a beautiful image of the gentlemen drivers George Osmont and Auguste Fossier who compete with a trycicle on a velodrome:

Probably George Osmont was riding a Griffon, as on this picture (source: Wikimedia Commons):

On one of the fold-out sheets there are two other interesting photos with a motorcycle. At the top we see M. Bernette, a French daredevil racing on a velodrome. Below that, race-track cyclist Guignard behind a stayer motorcycle "driven" by Bertin and Weis.

Here the part of the sheet with the written information:

It is striking that all the envelopes I have seen have the address details starting with "Monsieur le Docteur". These envelopes were probably only sent to a specific professional group.

Here is another example of the advertising on the sheets, in this case for a vitamin preparation.

Ad van Tiel

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