Vintage Poster Archives
Mauzan La Nazionale 1914 | Italian Advertising Poster
Mauzan La Nazionale 1914 | Italian Advertising Poster
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A deep crimson ground, four caricature figures piling onto the platform of an ornate precision scale, and the bold gold letterforms of 'LA NAZIONALE' cast in relief on the machine's base. Achille Luciano Mauzan composed this poster for Toselli & Co. of Via Monte Napoleone 18, Milan, with the dates of two Italian royal decrees, 9 February 1913 and 11 December 1914, certifying the scale for commercial use, worked directly into the typography.
Mauzan was working at the Ricordi publishing house in Milan between 1912 and 1917, producing lithographic commercial work that drew on his training at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts de Lyon and his instinct for the single arresting visual. The five figures crowding the scale are a deliberate cross-section of the Italian trade: a butcher's boy, a businessman, a housewife, a chef, and a customs officer. Every potential customer of a precision weighing scale, rendered in caricature and pressed together in comic solidarity. The message is delivered in one image.
The saturated red ground, the gleam of the silver scale dial, and the warm gold of the display type reflect the high-quality chromolithographic production standards of Ricordi's Milan print shop during this period.
Reproduced as a giclée print on 200gsm Enhanced Matte Fine Art Paper. The warm red and gold palette suits a study, office, or dining room setting. Well-suited for anyone drawn to Italian commercial graphic design from the years before the First World War.
