Debauve & Gallais revives the tradition of chromos, those illustrated cards slipped into chocolate boxes. A forgotten tradition, elegantly old-fashioned, and a collector's delight.

Scenes of life, small trades, comic stories, galleries of paintings, portraits of soldiers... The archives of the historic store on rue des Saints-Pères in Paris boast a rich collection of these images, which were very much in vogue in the 19th century.

These images take their name "chromos" from the color printing technique used, chromolithography. Launched by Aristide Boucicaut, the inventive founder of Le Bon Marché, then adopted by Parisian chocolatiers, led by Debauve & Gallais, chromos marked the beginning of advertising imagery: collectors coveted the images, exchanged them, and watched for the opening of
chocolate boxes.

Five images, in playing card format, feature five illustrious customers of the house. A new case, in the emblematic green of the historic rue des Saints-Pères façade, also celebrates this rebirth. Designed in the same format as the chromos, it can be filled with chocolates, then stored to stack the collected cards.