Description

RARE MENU, PRINTED ON A PHOTOCARD REPRESENTING A DRAWING OF THE EIFFEL TOWER, from Lunch offered to the Parisian press by Mr Eiffel.

It includes this autograph dedication signed by Gustave Eiffel:

"Remembrance of 4 July 1888
presented to Mr Lepelletier
G. Eiffel

This lunch was organised by the architect on the day of the inauguration of the second floor of the Eiffel Tower and "It was on this platform that, on 4 July 1888, Mr Eiffel invited a hundred or so representatives of the Paris press to lunch. At the time, no foreigner had ever made the ascent, and the guests at this grand premiere were :
Messrs Hébrard, President of the Syndicat de la presse parisienne; Berger, Director of Exhibition Operations; Paul Strauss, Charles Laurent, Alphonse Humbert, Albiot, de Léris, Rouy, Secretary of the Syndicat de la presse, Francisque Sarcey, Valentin Simond, Henri Simon, Eugène Mayer, Henry Maret, Joseph Reinach, Gustave Simon, Jules Lermina, Sauvestre, the Tower's architect; Jules Comte, Director of Civil Buildings; Vaudoyer, Exhibition architect; Edmond Lepelletier, Gustave Batiau, Edgard Hément, Robert Hyenne, Gaston Carie, A. Lenoir, Camille Dreyfus, Marc, Grisier, Bertol-Graivil, Cahen, Lordon, Félix Dunal, Brunet, Ozun, Fleurant, Aubry, Niel, Fernand Bourgeat, Liouville, Hip-peau, Camille Le Senne, and the representative from Le Figaro, etc., etc." (Petit Journal, 1889)

Louis-Emile Durandelle immortalised the event by photographing the entire group of journalists; the now-famous photograph is now in the Musée d'Orsay.

Born in the Batignolles district of Paris, Edmond Pelletier (1846 - 1913) was a journalist, poet and politician. Very close to Paul Verlaine, he was the first biographer of the author of the Poèmes saturniens, and even met Arthur Rimbaud on three occasions.
Verlaine dedicated a poem to her that began as follows: My oldest surviving friend / Of a group of ghosts already / Dancing like atoms / In the moonlight ahead.

This menu, printed for the guests in an edition of around one hundred copies, is now extremely rare.