41 Leonetto Cappiello (Italian, 1875-1942)
 Les Contemporains
Célèbres, 1904. Hardcover book created for biscuit
company Lefèvre-Utile. Cloth spine and original boards
with wood veneer, printed with colour lineblock designs, including
stamped inset by Alfons Mucha, depicting Sarah Bernhardt. Includes
fourteen original lineblocks with pochoir, signed in block by
Leonetto Cappiello, as shown on the following pages. 33 x 26
x 3cm (book). Slight soiling to boards and minor wear to edges
of boards and spine, otherwise in superb condition. Printed on
laid paper watermarked "LU Nantes."
 Lineblocks depict
prominent personnages of the time with accompanying pages of
letterpress text. The book contains process screen or photogravure
illustrations, reproducing photographic portraits taken by Nadar
and others, and handwritten passages by those depicted. Opening
pages include title, date, artists, publisher and list of plates
in letterpress text. Published by Publications Artistiques Octave
Beauchamp, 295 Boul Raspail, Paris. Printed by G. de Malherbe,
Imprimeur, 12 Passage des Favorites, Paris. Lefèvre-Utile
Biscuit Co. was founded in Nantes, France in 1846. The company's
famous acronym and logo, LU, originated with Alfons Mucha, who
used it in an 1897 calendar advertisement. Leonetto Cappiello
is considered to be the father of modern advertising: his innovative
and successful approach captured the attention of viewers through
dramatic poster design, using bold, flat colours against dark
backgrounds. His prolific output included posters, magazine illustrations,
postcards and caricatures.
(Ref: Rennert, The Posters of Leonetto Cappiello, 2004)
$6,600
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