Braun Cognac

Kónya Zoltán

Publication Date: 1926

About this Item

Size: Small poster artwork (cca. 15 x 11 cm). The formation of the Hungarian liqueur industry happened in the 19th century The first companies came into being from former small royal leaseholds The production was personally controlled by the company owners who often dealt with wine trade spirit and vinegar production as well to ensure financial profit The same was true about the first Hungarian liqueur company which was founded in 1839 by Lajos Braun The Braun Liqueur Company became well known soon and won several medals of international and local exhibitions During the second part of the century the company offered cognac brandy and rum After the death of Lajos the entrepreneurship was lead by his sons and its name was changed to Braun Brothers Around the turn of the century a bigger and bigger competition started in the field of liqueur industry as many other fine brands emerged and gained popularity However G za Braun composed a new kind of liqueur called St Hubertus which gained a huge reputation and could maintain success for the factory With further other products like the Braun Brandy or the Braun Cherry Brandy the company made it to the top in the 1930s and made a trade of 6 million peng s The business passed from father to son until it was socialized in 1949 After the fall of the socialist regime the Zwack Unicum Company won the right of the production of St Hubertus which is still one of the popular alcoholic beverages today This poster maquette was designed for the Braun Brothers Company in 1926 some years before the peak period It is an elegant hand painted and hand drawn work from Zolt n K nya He depicted a humorous fuzzy like clown figure without a wig holding a bottle of Braun Cognac in one hand and a glass full of the beverage in the other The inscription appears below in lively purple reading Cognac Braun Brothers Joint stock Company Founded in 1839 Budapest Although not so much is known about K nya s career it is clearly visible that he was influenced by the German Plakatstil Poster Style This piece together with further K nya artworks in our collection is one of the evidences for that The so called object posters deriving from the German term Sachplakat consisted of a realistic representation of the advertised product with hardly any other element than a clean spectacular typography The inventor was Lucien Bernhardt who created the first object poster in 1905 for a competition and won by the stark simplicity of his design He stepped away from Art Nouveau the formerly prevailing style in poster art and emphasized flat shapes striking colours bold letters and stunning visual effects The style had impacts on Hungarian poster art too M rton Tuszkay was the first one to introduce the new approach in advertising in the 1910s but as this work proves the tendency was present later as well K nya applied the characteristics of the style well he developed a strong contrast between the background and the depicted elements highlighted the advertised product and even placed a lovely figure there to catch the attention of viewers and then direct it to the product held by the figure The clown figure is represented in an artistic way as only the face in the typical white and red make up the wide white collar and the hands in white gloves are visible in front of a homogenous black background This keynote can be paralleled with one of the poster of S ndor Bortnyik from 1915 created for Unicum a famous Hungarian herbal spirit There an invisible waiter pours Unicum from the bottle to a glass with his white gloved hands in front of a black background Both designs are based on the bold cut out the hand motif separated from the human body which gives a grotesque character for them However while that Unicum poster is highly sophisticated this maquette is a light hearted piece sources http hvg hu magyarmarka 20050325braunhubertus www huszadikszazad hu. Seller Inventory # 3288

Bibliographic Details

Title: Braun Cognac

Publication Date: 1926

Binding: Paint on cardboard.

Condition: Near mint.