45

Next to “Salons comiques” (mock salons) and other “semaines comiques” that develop in the 19th century minor press, a new genre emerges in this very same press, the “Étrennes comiques” or mock Christmas/New Year’s gift. A quotidian object is reduced to one sole function, that of becoming a “present” for a fashionable “illustrious person”, politician, successful writer, celebrity actor or actress, scandal-dogged artist. The gift exemplifies a quirk, highlights a flaw, criticises a decision, highlights a personal shortage or a manic habit. Thus, Zola will be given a chair (or a chamber pot), a secularist a stoup, etc. This paper, in focusing on the object, takes a photograph at a given moment of the state of social life, and constitutes a kind of “comedic” avatar of the serious “vanities” of those times.