?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 2,000 - $ 3,000
PLINIO COGDONATO (1878-1940) FIAT. 1938. 54 1/4x39 1/4 inches. Gros Monti & Cie., Turin. Condition B+: repaired tears in margins, some affecting image; faint vertical and horizontal folds. After working a few years in his native city of Verona, Cogdonato moved to Milan in 1918. Such was his reputation as a designer with an eye for movement that he became known as "il cantore de la velocita in cartellone" (The Troubadour of Speed in Posters). In this poster for the advertising giant Fiat, Cogdonato plays with a very recognizable historical and current theme. "Balilla" was the nickname given to the young man who allegedly began the Italian revolt against the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1746. In 1926 Mussolini co-opted the name and applied it to his paramilitary Fascist "youth movement," aimed at boys ages 8 to 14. Their uniform was adapted from the infamous Blackshirts. In 1938, Fiat named its 508 model "Balilla." This poster intends to play off the Italian sense of nationalism and pride, but can also be interpreted as showing how good advertising knows no political boundaries.
