Luxor Polishing Paste — by Adolphe Mouron Cassandre

A striking French advertising poster featuring a knight in shining armour, an allegory for the brilliant gleam of Luxor metal polish.

Original title: Luxor Pâte Minérale Savonneuse. Designed by Aly. Printed by Anciens Établissements Léopold Verger & Cie, Paris, c. 1925.

Verger commissioned several variants of the Luxor knight motif from different artists during the 1920s, each playing on the chivalric association of polished steel. Adolphe Mouron Cassandre's interpretation, with its sharply patterned heraldry and confident lettering, exemplifies the dynamic illustrative style of interwar French advertising. Allegorical figures such as this lent everyday household products the visual prestige of myth and tradition.

Chromolithograph. Sheet size 30.9 × 23.5 cm. Excellent.