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French to English translations [PRO] Social Sciences - History / museum exhibit
French term or phrase:feuilles de soldats
I am translating a pamphlet for a "musée de l'image" in France and among the list of exhibits I have "feuilles de soldats". Can anyone help me with this? Here is the relevant sentence for context:
De l’image religieuse à l’historiette pour enfants sages, en passant par l’image de propagande, les théâtres de papier, les feuilles de soldats, les images satiriques et la publicité… vous pouvez découvrir tous les thèmes traités dans l’imagerie populaire.
Explanation: "C'est en Alsace et précisément à Strasbourg que le petit soldat de papier, peint à la main, découpé et monté sur plot, vit le jour.
Au XVIII° siècle, on trouvait déjà, chez plusieurs commerçants de la ville, des feuilles de soldats à découper et à peindre." http://afcfef.fr/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5...
-------------------------------------------------- Note added at 24 mins (2011-10-18 10:42:49 GMT) --------------------------------------------------
I suppose it depends on whether the "feuilles" were made of paper or cardboard. My French ref would imply it was more likely to be paper, but internet searches bring up a lot of references to a film!
-------------------------------------------------- Note added at 27 mins (2011-10-18 10:45:46 GMT) --------------------------------------------------
Thank you very much Catharine and everyone else for the valuable discussion. I used "paper soldiers" in the end because it seemed to be the most appropriate translation in this context. 4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer
Actually, there are various potential candidates amongst the images I found, some with identical soldiers, others not. Others again that look like the broadsides (single sheet illustrated newspapers). I think it is important to base the solution on the museum holdings. I haven't, for instance, seen any cut-out images or three-dimensional blocks created from them. They would have been least likely to survive. The museum may have them, I don't know, but the term in question doesn't in itself suggest that they are referring to them specifically if they exist.
featured a sheet of cavalry soldiers all exactly the same. For a picture that is quite unusual. You only need it once, not 30 times over. According to my link and all I have seen in museums myself, they can be mounted on feet of various kinds, even stuck on blocks of wood so they can stand up and for preventing wear and tear. Also the idea of 'feuille de soldats' is associated with toys. I suppose they would be called feuille as they were printed, but that does not mean they were not used for anything else apart from looking at. They are even mentioned in stories as to cutting out and playing with them (not always as soldiers, but there you go). I know what 'figurine' means, although people who collect 2-dimensional ones don't seem to bother about the distinction. I have the impression that they are collected in to kinds of ways: as 'feuilles' by themselves, of famous designers/printers hand-painted or not, as reproductions and mounted on various kinds of feet (of course in reproduction). They go together with the 'théâtres de papier' in the text too, which gives away an association and it is sandwiched between serious and serious.
Kirsten, the point I am making is about the word 'feuille'. In print culture, it is a sheet of paper. When one talks about a print of some kind, one speaks of sheet size. This is an area in which I specialise. A figurine is always a figure in the round, i.e. three-dimensional. It can never be a feuille, neither would a 'feuille' be mounted upon anything except a flat support - card, paper, wooden panel, etc. But all of that is irrelevant, since there is nothing in the text given by the Asker to suggest any kind of support, mounting at all. All it says is that it is a sheet and thus by extension a print. What one does with it in terms of use is not said, and from the images I provided, it is evident that there are many such prints in the museum's collection. It is perfectly possible for a 'feuille' to have no use whatsoever beyond its use as an image. See feuille de garde (endpaper), feuille volante (broadside / broadsheet), feuille (sheet of paper / newspaper / journal). See, for instance, 'Glossary of foreign terms for the study of works of art on paper and books' by Philip Walker Jacobs.
It would seem from this link http://petitssoldatsdestrasbourg.blogspot.com/2010_01_31_arc... that the words 'feuilles' and 'planches' can be used interchangeably for sets of soldiers printed on paper to be cut out. The soldiers he talks about are luxury ones from Strassbourg, but it makes no difference. They can be mounted on various types of feet too. They are also referred to as 'soldats de carte' or 'soldats de papier'. Particular 'feuilles' are also called after their designers if they are famous, or they are re-printed according to the same design. Historically they could be hand-painted. Also the word 'figurine' is often used in the same context. Here http://lesapn.forumactif.fr/t8442-petits-soldats-de-strasbou... there is also an example of such a 'feuille' with instructions what to do with it.
The word 'feuille' is something material, to do something with. Like 'sheet', it has to be of use, it cannot mean a picture of some kind. That would be 'gravure'' or something similar.
from photos that they do have figurines standing up in displays in the museum. So, indeed check with the client first. However, in my opinion they are just giving an example so as long as readers know what you are referring to it should be fine.
Toy soldiers or paper soldiers (in this case) were meant for instruction from the start as well as propaganda and they were also meant to carry out battles with, to learn hisotry from etc, which the modern rules for battle play are evidently a relic from. The sheets were also called 'planches de soldats' in reference to the wood cuts which were used for printing before copper. When copper was introduced, such soldiers were produced in their thousands.
There is nothing here to suggest that these images of soldiers are mounted on any kind of support. They may be, of course, but it is not said that they are. Again, I think I would check with the client exactly what is meant. It seems EN needs that precision.
that the museum has the two options in its collection. Sheets of paper soldiers, not cut out, and ones stuck on wooden blocks or put on a base (probably younger models), or I have seen collections like that.
It would seem that the reason 'feuilles' is being used here is that the paper soldiers came in the form of printed sheets to be cut out. So maybe 'cut-out paper soldiers' would be most accurate.
Explanation: "C'est en Alsace et précisément à Strasbourg que le petit soldat de papier, peint à la main, découpé et monté sur plot, vit le jour.
Au XVIII° siècle, on trouvait déjà, chez plusieurs commerçants de la ville, des feuilles de soldats à découper et à peindre." http://afcfef.fr/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5...
-------------------------------------------------- Note added at 24 mins (2011-10-18 10:42:49 GMT) --------------------------------------------------
I suppose it depends on whether the "feuilles" were made of paper or cardboard. My French ref would imply it was more likely to be paper, but internet searches bring up a lot of references to a film!
-------------------------------------------------- Note added at 27 mins (2011-10-18 10:45:46 GMT) --------------------------------------------------
Thank you very much Catharine and everyone else for the valuable discussion. I used "paper soldiers" in the end because it seemed to be the most appropriate translation in this context.
The translation workplace 
peer agreement (net): +2
