Fernet-Branca poster – L’Italia Presenta Al Mondo – D’Ylen.
Right from the company’s early beginnings, the Branca family were keen to embrace advertising with the first newspaper advert appearing in 1865. Over time, the basic adverts became increasingly important and with the advent of colour stone lithography soon embraced billboard posters to promote their product. The reproduction Fernet-Branca poster on this listing was originally created in 1922 by the French artist Jean D’Ylen. The text on the poster reads “L’Italia presenta al Mondo” “Il suo miglior prodotto Fernet-Branca” which translates as “Italy Presents to the World – The best product – Fernet-Branca”.
To back up the poster’s message the artist has beautifully depicted the Goddess Tyche. The Greek Goddess was also known as Address and was the personification of good fortune. She ensured the prosperity and destiny of a city. The emblematic Fernet Branca Queen as she became known, is depicted dressed in an elegant, long, white gown. On her head, she is wearing the corona turrita, or Crown of the City, a gold crown made in the shape of a wall with battlements and towers. D’Ylen’s clever use of the French Blue background ensures the monarch stands out prominently and proudly. The regal imagery certainly gives the product added kudos as the Fernet Branca Queen, is shown ‘presenting’ a bottle of Fernet-Branca to the World, which is represented by the assortment of flags from nations from all over the world.
Fernet-Branca posters
As early as 1886 the Fernet-Branca company published annual calendars with works by well-known artists. And in 1893 the company’s famous eagle-and-globe logo, which is still used on bottle labels today, was designed by Leopoldo Metlicovitz.
Fernet-Branca were soon to commission some of the best Italian and French poster artists of the time. The brancadistillerie website advises that artists including Giuseppe Amisani, Elio Stelminig, Osvaldo Ballerio, Achille Luciano Mauzan, Leopoldo Metlicovitz and Plinio Codognato are just some of the many artists that, starting from the penultimate decade of the 19th century, crossed paths with the Branca universe and forever helped define its visual heritage.
The 1909 Le Roi des Amers Fernet-Branca poster with its bright yellow background was created by Leonetto Cappiello. The King of Bitters advertising poster features a classic Cappiello character of a member of royalty wearing a tunic made up of bottles of the aperitif. A second poster created by Cappiello for the Branca brothers is adorned with an upright crocodile proudly holding a bottle of the renowned Aperitivo-Digestivo beverage aloft. Looking at the poster we’d swear the reptile is smiling gleefully!
One Fernet-Branca poster from around 1900 features Leopoldo Metlicovitz’s iconic eagle flying over a world globe with a bottle of alcohol in its talons. The vintage food & drink poster advertises the Amaro Tonico drink and is a later adaption of his original 1895 poster. A second Metlicovitz poster from 1910 depicts an image of a young woman carrying an Argentinian flag. She is the allegorical personification of Argentina and represents liberty, republic and motherland. Unlike Brittania in England, Marianne in France or Tyche in Italy, she doesn’t have a name. She was, however, important to the country and Metlicovitz used her image in Argentinian advertising campaigns when the drink was first being exported to the country.
Fernet-Branca
The history of Fernet-Branca goes back to Milan, Italy in 1845. That was the year Bernardino Branca, who with his sons set up a business to manufacture their new beverage Fernet-Branca. Its first production factory was built in Corso di Porta Nuova in Milan, which employed more than 300 workers.
The alcoholic drink invented by Branca, a self-taught herbalist, is a fernet, or ‘bitter’ herbal liqueur. It was originally marketed as a pick-me-up and as a cure for worms, fever, cholera and menstrual pain. It was and still is typically served as an after-dinner drink intended to aid in digestion.
The Fernet-Branca recipe includes 27 herbs, roots and spices that make up its unique special formula. The complete Fernet-Branca formula is a closely guarded secret. However, the Branca Distillery website does give away that the digestif contains “Rhubarb from China, Gentian from France, Galanga from India or Sri Lanka and Chamomile from Europe or Argentina. It also explains other ingredients including linden (tiliae flos), iris, saffron, zedoary, myrrh and cinchona. Other sources have reported that its recipe includes aloe ferox (bitter aloe), cinchona, chocolate, quinine and angelica.
According to the Fernet-Branca page on Wikipedia, the company began exporting to Argentina in 1907, and in 1925 established a distillery in Buenos Aires. The drink became popular in the United States in 1919 when the prohibition laws banned the drinking of alcohol. Despite the liqueur having an alcohol content of 39, a higher alcoholic content than most other Amari drinks, Fernet-Branca instead was sold through pharmacies as a medicinal product!
