“Collection Artistique. 98 – NICE – La Jetée-Promenade et les Palmiers.

Postcard from a photo likely taken by photographer Jean Giletta (1856-1933). Born Jean-Baptiste Gilletta in Levens, France; at some point Giletta dropped the Baptiste and the second letter L in his last name. Known as the photographer of the French Riviera, he is credited with taking over 8,000 images. Giletta got started in his career as an assistant to photographer Jean-August-Théodore Walburg de Bray, and it is said that, without a doubt, some of the work attributed to Walburg de Bray, was actually done by Giletta, likely at the end of Walburg de Bray’s career. In 1889, Giletta went into business for himself, and then in 1897, he was joined by his brothers, Joseph and François. These three brothers created the company for producing postcards from Jean Giletta’s photos, such as the beauty we have here. It is unclear in reading up on this photographer, whether absolutely all of the cards would have been originally from a Jean Giletta photo, but they could have been. But, not being there at the time the photo was taken, we could not know for sure.

This postcard shows a walkway lined with palm trees, and in the background is La Jetée Promenade. This was the jetty walkway of Le Casino Jetée Promenade. The original structure was envisioned as a “floating glass palace” by the Marquis d’Espouy de St. Paul, after the Marquis visited the Crystal Palace in Hyde Park, London, England. The casino and jetty walkway were built in 1882. Re-construction was done in 1900 after a fire. Sadly, the structure was demolished in 1944, during WWII, by German troops, and parts taken by them for scrap metal.

Divided back, unused, hand-tinted postcard. Publisher:  Giletta Frères, Nice, France. No. 98. Date unknown, possibly circa 1900-1910.

Price:  $10.00

Sources:  http://www.tpi-nice.org/expo/gilletta/index.htm

http://www.voyagesenphotographie.com/detailsSK08396_200px.shtml

http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jet%C3%A9e-Promenade_de_Nice

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jet%C3%A9e-promenade_de_Nice.JPG