?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 2,000 - $ 3,000
THÉOPHILE-ALEXANDRE STEINLEN (1880-1952) NESTLÉ'S SWISS MILK. 1895. 15 1/2x12 1/8 inches, 40x30 cm. Waterlow & Sons Limited, London. Condition B+: crease through upper left corner; pin-holes in corners. Paper. As a result of his successful one-man show at La Bodiniere in the spring of 1894, Steinlen's work gained wide recognition, and his popularity and fame spread across Europe. In Munich he sold his design for Mothu et Doria to a cigarette company (see Swann Art Nouveau Poster Auction #2133, lots 138-139). And in London he sold the copyright for his iconic Lait pur Sterilise to Nestlé. Steinlen's poster had come to England through the great British poster collector Edward Bella. In 1895 Bella held an exhibition of his collection at the Royal Aquarium. Included in the exhibition was Bella's copy of Lait pur Sterilise which was accompanied in the exhibition catalogue with the notice "This copyright for sale," an arrangement Bella must have worked out with Steinlen himself on a trip to Paris. The image is identical to Steinlen's original, except smaller in size and with different text, which clearly was not designed by Steinlen himself. Bargiel 17 b.
