Gibert Jeune
Publicity pack for Gibert Jeune, the famous Parisian bookshop, with designs by James Hodges.
Gibert Jeune was a real Parisian institution and landmark. It ceased trading from its famous address in Place Saint-Michel in 2021. Fifty years earlier, in 1971, the artist James Hodges (1928-2019) had created this publicity pack for the Gibert Jeune bookshop in his own inimitable style. Each court card features two different figures, many resembling lecturers and students, in keeping with the academic reading material sold by the bookshop in the Latin Quarter of Paris near the Sorbonne. The back design in orange and white includes two of the then addresses of the bookshop.
Above: ‘Gibert Jeune’ bookshop publicity playing cards designed by James Hodges, made by B.P. Grimaud, France, 1971. 52 cards + 2 (identical) Jokers + 1 title card + 1 bridge score card. Size: 55 x 84 mm.
By Roddy Somerville
France • Member since May 31, 2022
Roddy started collecting stamps on his 8th birthday. In 1977 he joined the newly formed playing-card department at Stanley Gibbons in London before setting up his own business in Edinburgh four years later. His collecting interests include playing cards, postcards, stamps (especially playing cards on stamps) and sugar wrappers. He is a Past President of the Scottish Philatelic Society, a former Chairman of the IPCS, a Past Master of the Worshipful Company of Makers of Playing Cards and Curator of the WCMPC’s collection of playing cards. He lives near Toulouse in France.
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