Vintage Poster Archives
Aletti Casino Algiers c.1930 | Vintage Advertising Poster
Aletti Casino Algiers c.1930 | Vintage Advertising Poster
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A roulette wheel rendered in broad black brushstrokes occupies the centre of the sheet, red pocket-markings visible through the implied rotation. To the right, a male figure stands as a near-total black silhouette in evening dress; in front of him, a brown-skinned woman in red leans across the wheel, red flowers at her waist. Sage green shadow planes push both figures forward against a warm cream ground. 'ROULETTE' runs in heavy crimson display type across the lower third; a red banner below announces 'BACCARA + BOULE'. The upper left carries 'ALGER / ALETTI / CASINO MUNICIPAL' in layered crimson and black lettering.
Designed by M. Cochard and lithographed by Imprimerie Baconnier, Alger, the poster was produced to advertise the Hôtel Aletti and its Casino Municipal in Algiers. The hotel was completed in 1930 by Paris architects Auguste Bluysen and Joachim Richard to mark the centenary of French rule in Algeria, and rapidly established itself as the city's foremost luxury address. Baconnier was among the most accomplished printing firms operating in French North Africa during the interwar years.
The composition belongs to the Art Deco current that ran through French North African commercial graphic design in the early 1930s: flat bold brushwork, a restricted palette of cream, crimson and black, and figure-drawing that reduces human form to graphic silhouette. The roulette wheel as pure arc is a design decision, not a mechanical diagram. Cochard's signature sits quietly in the lower right; beyond two auction appearances at Swann Galleries and Gooding and Company, biographical details remain unrecorded.
Reproduced from archival sources on 200gsm Enhanced Matte Fine Art Paper, supplied rolled. The design dates from c.1930; the print is freshly produced. Suited to those interested in interwar French colonial graphic design, Art Deco advertising, or the visual culture of the North African grand hotel.
