ADOLPHE MOURON CASSANDRE (1901-1968) TURMAC / LA CIGARETTE TURQUE. 1925.
63x46 3/4 inches, 160x118 3/4 cm. Hachard & Cie., Paris.
Condition B / B+: creases, abrasions and scratches in image; repaired tears, creases, wrinkles and restoration in margins; minor loss in upper left corner; discoloration along right edge.
One of Cassandre's earliest posters (Brown & Reinhold list it as his seventh), it predates the time when his work began to reflect his radical and ingenious design theories. He employs a sensuous approach which doesn't appear again in his work until 1937, when a similar smoldering cigarette is featured in his poster for Sensation Cigarettes. Nevertheless, it also foreshadows some of his subsequent graphic finesse: within the stylized smoke and the outside border, he plays with the interchange between shades of blue, white and black in a manner that presages his typographic work in later posters such as Pivolo, Nord Express and Étoile du Nord. The actual typography on this poster is an exceptional mix of Art Deco and the Arabesque. We have not found another copy at auction for the past 30 years. rare. Mouron p. 12, Cassandre / Suntory p. 175, Cassandre / Tokyo 11.