Apr 2 2007
An eBay Red Star* seller from Vienna, Austria recently listed a rare advertising poster on eBay.
The auction began on February 10th with a $5.00 initial bid and ended ten days later with
a final bid of $5,425.
This is a rare and intriguingly well-illustrated original advertising poster for ABADIE cigarette papers designed by the renowned commercial artist Eugéne Ogé (1861-1936) in 1904.
Specifications:
Country of Origin: France / for the Austrian market.
Date: 1904 or slightly later.
Artist: Eugéne Ogé (1861-1936).
Material: Paper poster. Mounted on Japan paper.
Manufacturing Technique: Lithography.
Size: Size is 52 x 37.5 inches.
Condition: Good with minor traces of wear, few small tears, minimal creases and folding lines - hardly visible due to the Japan paper backing. One manufacturing imperfection (white man's hand appears doubled) and very light stains. Overall condition is rated 8.5 / 10. No Restoration
This Abadie design is the "mother" of a campaign series, which would stretch way into the first half of the 20th Century. French graphic design legend Eugéne Ogé designed it in 1904 and this German language version is most likely to have followed soon after, since in later years the motifs were alternated quite a lot.
Abadie was the predecessor company of Rizzla, considered by many as the brand of brands among cigarette papers. Their consistent image as a symbol of tolerance and quality was initiated when Eugéne Ogé developed the Abadie advertising campaign around the turn of the Century, which would live on in many variations through the following decades.
In a style very true to Ogé's prolific work, the poster depicts four caricaturized heads, each representing a different ethnic group: a white gentleman, an American Indian, a Chinese and a Negro - all of them smoking and smiling, and all of them overtly exaggeratedly portrayed as for the intensity of their skin color and cliche mimicking facial expression. Furthermore, the paper-white European is wearing a top hat, the Indian a loose bunch of feathers, the Chinaman an ancient mustache and the African a fez. In brief, this is vintage early cartoon style, all figures lined up with quirky smiles and a thumbs-up. The campaign slogan reads (transl.): "Everybody smokes Abadie papers!"
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Source:
Professional Marketing
