Vintage Poster Archives
Mauzan Livelgraf 1923 | Italian Advertising Poster
Mauzan Livelgraf 1923 | Italian Advertising Poster
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A red-costumed jester, his spherical grey head stamped '15 Litri' on a yellow fuel dial, perches atop a silver steering column against a saturated navy ground. One finger points toward the dial; the other arm raises a cylindrical canister linked by a coiling white tube. Below, the Livelgraf logotype flows in canary-yellow Art Deco script, with 'G. Masino & C., Torino' set in bold yellow caps beneath it. Mauzan's signature sits in the upper right; the MAGA-Paris printer's mark occupies the lower right.
Designed by Achille Lucien Mauzan (1883–1952) circa 1923 for the MAGA advertising agency, founded in Bologna in 1920 by Giuseppe Magagnoli and the largest pre-war Italian advertising operation. Mauzan worked for MAGA between 1919 and 1923, and the Livelgraf commission sits squarely within that period. The poster advertised an illuminated petrol-level indicator manufactured by G. Masino & C. in Turin, then the centre of Italy's automobile industry. The caricature jester format was among Mauzan's favoured commercial devices: the poster's subject is a technical instrument, but the delivery is that of a carnival broadside.
The design is documented in the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage catalogue. Mauzan, working across Milan, Paris and Buenos Aires during this period, produced over 2,000 posters during his career and is regarded as one of the defining Art Deco commercial illustrators working in Italy in the interwar decades.
Reproduced as an archival print on 200gsm Enhanced Matte Fine Art Paper, using pigment-based inks. Supplied rolled. A natural fit for anyone drawn to 1920s Italian commercial art, Art Deco design, or the early history of the automobile industry.
