Many of the older Hermes designs are interpretations of actual objects. Those lucky enough to get invited into the Hermes Museum at their headquarters, 24 Faubourg in Paris, will be able to see many of the items used during the long process to get from artwork to finished scarf....all of the items in Memoires d'Hermes for instance.. and the actual toy Mexican Horse used in the recent design. 

There are other places where the source material can be found too.  Here are a few examples I have come across this week....

Cirque Molier............an easy one.................... detail from a Cirque Molier Poster...available on Ebay!!

Gloire d'Alexandre...how about a trip to Italy to see.........the Alexander Mosaic in the House of Faun, Pompeii...now in Naples.

...what I always took to be the smoke of the Battle of Guagamela (331BC) around Alexander...are in fact bits missing from the mosaic!

Grotte de Versailles.............here is a contemporary etching of the Grotte de Thetys by G and B Marcy, 1670.. and still there at Versailles.

Real Escuela Andaluza del Arte Ecuestre......... and the source?.... a publicity photograph from their website!!

La Fontaine de Bartholdi..........................straight from the actual fountain, just down the road from the Hermes Factory,

 in La Place des Terreaux, Lyon........made by Auguste Bartholdi in 1888, a couple of years after he had finished the Statue of Liberty!

Please click the YES box if this Guide has spurred you on to do some Internet research of your own.... and maybe go to see some of these original works of art?  Have a look at some of my other Guides on Hermes source material via this More Source Material Link, and the others on Hermes fakes, counterfeits and "reproductions" with  this Index Link.

HEALTH WARNING: 

This type of Internet research can damage your health, cause your legs to whither away and your life to slip through your fingers. 

ALWAYS USE THE INTERNET IN MODERATION!....... now step away from the computer, and take a break!!