the death closet, the ancestor of the announcement card
How was death announced before?
"If all we see these days is the banal black border, our fathers adorned, and sometimes beautifully, the notice of some family member's entry into eternity."
Louis Esquieu
Detail from the funeral notice of Levieux, seigneur de la Motte d'Esgry (1667)
When we think of funeral stationery, we often think of those famous black borders framing announcements - and which already seemed to annoy Louis Esquieu when he wrote his 1904 collection Les Placards Mortuaires. Les Placards Mortuaires. It's a graphic code that's still in use today, although we don't really know why - except that it's a sign of mourning.
But the death announcement was not born as such. For economic reasons (or " bad taste " according to Louis), it's a funerary and popular art form that has evolved considerably over time.
"wake up people who sleep, pray to God for the dead!"
The first living death announcements appeared in France in the Middle Ages - from the 12th century onwards: they were known as " clocheteurs des morts " or " crieurs/recommandeurs des trépassés ". Their role was to go through the streets, bell in hand, to announce the day's deaths by shouting the name of the deceased, recommending the soul of the deceased to prayer and inviting the faithful to the funeral.
But the advent of printing changed the custom somewhat, replacing the criers with "death notices" posted on the doors of funeral homes, cemeteries and churches.
Mortuary cupboard from Rennes (1750)
These large-format funeral tickets (40x50cm) have been appearing in France since at least 1634. But it was around 1680 that they took on a more artistic dimension. Engraved in wood, illustrations framed the text, the first letter of which (V, for " vous êtes priés ") was also adorned with funerary attributes. Tears, skulls, crossed femurs and skeletons intermingled to create a macabre yet solemn universe.
As time went by and mores evolved, this symbolic framework took on more romantic dimensions.
Winged figures took the place of the camarde and its grimacing mask, femurs became torches and tears winged hourglasses. Symbols no longer focused on finitude, but on eternal life and the rebirth of the soul.
Detail of Marguerite Convers's death notice (1709)
Towards the end of the 19th century, formats began to shrink and designs to simplify in favor of the black border we still know today.
So that at last " the majestic sheet [tends] to disappear before the vulgar leaflet ". Louis Esquieu would be very sad to see that even paper has finally disappeared in the face of changing mores and the emergence of digital technology - rendering funeral stationery and its art obsolete.
But perhaps this is an opportunity to create new alternatives, and thus bring back a little of this forgotten art in death?
"But Sir, until now the necessary tickets
To invite the world to funeral convoys
Have been so badly made that it was painful to see them;
And for the public good I have tried to provide for them.
I've had small ornaments, mottos and emblems engraved on purpose, with extreme care,
To brighten up the view and serve as embellishments
For funeral tickets.
You can judge for yourself, Sir, that embellished in this way,
they will do more honor to the dead person;
and that the curious, lovers of Fine Arts,
will come from all over to the convoy of her body. "
from the comedy LE MERCURE GALANT (1683)
