The Lavazza Museum in Torino (Italy) is hosting a delightful online exhibition: “Figurine Lavazza” (Lavazza picture cards).
The trend of picture cards was born on Paris in 1867, during the Universal Exhibition, and it became instantly one of the most used advertising tools in Europe. Lavazza, the coffee company based in Torino, started creating series of picture cards (6 cards front and back), to be collected in dedicated albums. The cards, with a wide range of subjects (history, art, architecture, literature, biology, civic education, history of coffee, sport champions, actors and actresses), were created by illustrators and school teachers: their goal was to amuse and educate kids through storytelling.
Today those picture cards are collector’s items, and objects that tell Lavazza’s first massive communications project, that lasted 20 years.
The language of the exhibition is in Italian.
You can find it here: https://archiviostorico.lavazza.com/le-figurine
Pictured: Il Concorso del Leone (the Lion competition), promoted by Metro Goldwyn Mayer (Lavazza Archive).
