Mascara — Vin d'Algérie, 1925

A colonial-era Algerian wine label — reproduced on a period postcard — naming Mascara, a real Algerian wine-producing region, as its own selling point rather than any single named house. Algeria's French colonial wine industry did not survive independence in its settler-era form; this generic regional label is a dead mark by any measure, with no single producer to trace forward or back. The absence of a named producer — this sells terroir and colony before it sells a brand, a different advertising logic than every named-house piece elsewhere in this collection. The region's wine trade is gone. The label is what is left to look at honestly.

Maker

Unknown

Date

1925

Medium of the original

Poster

Original held by

Wikimedia Commons

Credit

Wikimedia Commons · via Wikimedia Commons

Rights

Cleared for print

Catalogue number

PA-00590