[AGATHOPEDES] [FORTSAS]- Certificat de présence à l'Expositi - Lot 243

Lot n° 243
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400 - 500 EUR
Result : NC
[AGATHOPEDES] [FORTSAS]- Certificat de présence à l'Expositi - Lot 243
[AGATHOPEDES] [FORTSAS]- Certificat de présence à l'Exposition universelle de Paris 1878. Paris, Tresse (imp. J. Collot), 1878. 44.5 x 30 cm, etching on wove paper, signed Guillaumot fils. Minor foxing, 2 small marginal tears. Rare certificate given as a souvenir to distinguished visitors, this one attesting that the Count of Fortsas, resident in Binche (name and address calligraphed in black ink), visited the Paris World's Fair in 1878. It is dated August 15 and signed Pléekleer. Behind the Count of Fortsas lurks the mischievous Renier Chalon (1802-1889), a Montois bibliophile and numismatist famous for his mystification of the sales catalog of the imaginary library of the equally fictitious Count of Fortsas. Chalon used this pseudonym on several occasions to perpetrate his "chalonades". This one perfectly illustrates his taste for hoaxes, very much in the spirit of the mischievous Agathopèdes society of which he was the figurehead.
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