Transportation, Aviation, Art, Aircraft of the Future, Antique Prints on Card, c. 1900

Jean-Marc Côté et al. (after)
En L’An 2000 [In the Year 2000]
Set of Eight Cards:
Aeronat au long Cours [Long Distance Air Travel]
L’Agent Aviateur [Aviator Traffic Policeman]
Le Coup de l Etrier [One for the Road]
Le Depart pour le Promenade [Leaving for a Walk]
Parlez au Concierge [Speaking to the Concierge]
Station d Aero-Cabs [Air Taxi Station]
Sur la Route de Londres (Pas-de-Calais) [Along the London Road]
Un Sauvetage [A Rescue]
French: c. 1900
Chromolithographs on card
2.5 x 4 inches each
$400, set of 8

A lighthearted assortment of pictures imagining aviation in the year 2000, produced for the Paris World Exhibition in 1900. They were first printed as cigar box inserts, then as postcards between 1899 and 1910. The illustrations were commissioned from a group of French artists, notably Jean-Marc Côté, who were asked to imagine the world in the year 2000. These eight cards concern aviation; the entire project encompassed every aspect of daily life, including domestic life, common occupations, entertainment, farming, fashion, road transportation, etc. As a group, the cards provide a fascinating look at how people imagined the future. Though personal aircraft have yet to become a pervasive mode of travel, one wonders if the artist would be surprised that the concept of the drive-through restaurant has turned out to be no mere flight of fancy. According to an article published in Slate in 2015, there are at least 87 known card designs. The science-fiction author Isaac Asimov discovered the cards in the 1980s and published them in the book Futuredays: A Nineteenth-Century Vision of the Year 2000 (1986).

Condition: Generally very good with the usual light toning, wear, soiling, soft creases. Paper tape residue verso.