?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 600 - $ 900
SARDINES. Gouache maquette. 1928. 253/4x18 inches. Condition B-: missing lower left corner; tears, losses and discoloration in margins; chipping, flaking and staining in image. Paper. This is a maquette for a poster intended to market French sardines; apparently it was never realized. In a simple, compelling image, a French sailor with a red nose and ears is pouring out his catch of sardines in a stylized flow. Chassaing has carefully integrated the typography into the image, with the sides of the fisherman's net (or bucket) bearing some inscriptions, and the text at top conforming to the overall circular structure of the image. Despite never having encountered this image as a printed poster, another element strongly suggests to us that the poster would never have been realized. One of France's largest producers of canned sardines, Amieux, used the slogan "toujours Amieux." Chassaing's choice of text, "jamais mieux," is a play on words over which Amieux would have most certainly sued!
