The 32nd Collector’s Fair welcomed more than forty exhibitors, Sunday January 19 at the Saint-Nicolas rooms in Compiègne. “Due to lack of space, we cannot accommodate additional participants,” regrets Catherine Platel, president of the Collectionnoisethe organizing association.
If lovers of old books, miniature cars, beans, champagne capsules or statuettes were there, others presented original pieces.
This was the case for 1/100th reproductions of Compiègne monuments. Mastering computer design and cutting, historian Guillaume Roignant has made a specialty of reproducing the sites of the Imperial City.
After the remarkable town hall, he revived the Convent of the Jacobins. A building which has now disappeared, on the site of which the private mansion which houses the Antoine-Vivenel Museum was built. Nearby, the ruins of the “Tour Beauregard”, nicknamed Tour Jeanne d’Arc. “Initially, it was called the “King’s Tower,” indicates its designer. She received a dozen different names.”
The facade of the old Hôtel Dieu
The latest work of this enthusiast: the facade of the former Hôtel-Dieu, known today as the Salles Saint-Nicolas. “I will of course reproduce the entire building.”
Not far away, Michel Brunin, collector of old posters, notably presented an amusing appeal to the people in the form of a loan from the SNCF which took the form of “lots of kilometers” allowing subscribers to travel for free over a given distance.
Another original collection: that of a member of the Hutin family. It presented authentic fragments of meteorites, ancient sabers and knives, wooden boxes containing syringes and medical utensils, and curious electrical devices for medical purposes. At that time, it was believed that electricity could cure everything.
