Acatene Velleda Cycles poster – Lucien Baylac – 1896

Acatene Velleda Cycles poster – Lucien Baylac – 1896

In fairness, if you are going to use somebody to advertise your products, you may as well pick a goddess! And if you’re going to pick a goddess you could do worse than pick Velleda. As a 1st century Germanic seeress, she is said to have had the ability to foretell future events and perform sorcery. So she was perfect to advertise this unique bicycle.

Seeing into the future themselves, and attempting to improve on previous bicycle designs, the Parisian firm La Métropole created a bicycle with a chainless transmission system. They named it the Acatène Velleda.

La Metropole marketed the Acatène bicycle brand from the mid-1890s. This is one of their earliest advertising posters and by far the company’s most famous. It was created by the artist Lucien Baylac in 1896.The poster features the seeress holding a Model 208 Acatène Velleda bicycle, the companies most expensive product. The chainless bicycle was supplied with American G&J tyres, which is referenced in the poster in the tire image behind Velleda’s head and the series of shields that run across the top of the famous poster.

Baylec was also keen to capitalise on the ‘chainless’ significance by including the eagle above the bike. It is shown with a broken chain in its beak and talons. An analogy being made between lack of a chain on the bike and the unchained freedom the bicycle would offer a new generation of women. The suggestion is supported by the Latin motto ‘Vae Catenis’ or ‘Woe to Chains’ displayed in the sunburst above its head.

Our posters are carefully and professionally created from vintage originals. Whilst great care is taken in the production of these posters, we also try to maintain a vintage feel, so there may be small imperfections, fold marks, scuffs, tears, or marks that were part of the original poster master. If these do appear they should be visible on the larger views of the item on this listing. The originals of many of the posters we offer can cost many thousands of pounds, so whilst these posters look great, especially framed and mounted on a wall, they are intended as fun, affordable reproductions and not intended fine art prints.

The 50x70cm version has been specially produced to be used in conjunction with Ikea’s 50x70cm Ribba picture frame which currently retails for around £12. So you can bag a bargain of print and frame for a great price.