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Full size sold for $12,000 US Poster Auctions International, NY. Sept 2014
"One of the most famous and important posters to come out of Italy, Terzi’s  design for Dentol toothpaste is a graphic tour de force, combining humor with compositional clarity. Rare!" (Rennert)

As an illustrator, Terzi was described as bringing Art Nouveau poster design to a world class level. He produced work throughout his life, notably for the Italian poster company Casa Ricordi. Most of his work was destroyed in the 1960s when the company cleared its warehouses.

Aleardo Terzi  in the studio of  Ricordi in Milan

Aleardo Terzi studies at Accademia di Belle Arti in Palermo. In 1892 he moves to Rome, where he is asked to collaborate to the journal ” La Tribuna illustrata”. From 1898 he is actively busy in designing postcards, and music book covers; he is illustrator and designer for Officine grafiche Ricordi. He moves to Bologna to work with the editor E. Chappuis, while he goes on collaborating with the most relevant magazines and newspapers of that moment (among which Corriere dei piccoli from the start).
Maestro of Italian Liberty style, he illustrates lots of books, among the titles of a famous series "La Scala d'oro" by the editor UTET.

After a first period, in which an allegorical figure was prevalent in his works, Terzi gave us two masterpieces in the Poster history in Italy: the monkey brushing its teeth with Dentol in 1914 and the puppy with a brush in its mouth, advertising  Max Meyer & C in 1921. Between 1913 and  1915 he is one of the  animators of  “Secessione romana”, whose exhibitions he takes part with some paintings, while preparing the staging and the catalogue covers. He then moves back to Milan, where he becomes the manager of the advertising office at  Wander. He is very active as a fashion designer, for furniture and ceramics and also as an advertiser. In 1925 he is the Director of “Istituto del libro di Urbino” and in  1928 he becomes the Director of the graphic studio of ”Secessione” from Vienna."(www.arteliberty.it translation by Irene De Angelis Curtis)

This is a selection from the very rare commemorative portfolio published by the renowned Italian printer Ricordi in 1914. The portfolio consisted of 70 lithographic plates (smaller versions) of Ricordi's greatest posters printed between 1895 and 1914. Many of the images in the series are so rare that they can be found today in no other format. In the 1870s, Ricordi opened an in-house lithography shop to promote its operas and sheet music business. Ricordi quickly became the leading lithographer in Italy and by 1895 was creating posters for other clients such as Campari, the Milan newspaper Corriere della Sera, and the Mele Department store of Naples. Under the tutelage of Adolfo Hohenstein, a brilliant stable of artists emerged at Ricordi. Artists including Cappiello, Caldanzano, Cavaleri, Dudovich, Laskoff, Metlicovitz and Mataloni brought Art Nouveau, known as Stile Liberty in Italy, to a world class level. Much like the famous Maitre de L'Affiche series created by Cheret in Paris, this portfolio celebrated the rise of the poster - which in Italy was almost single-handedly accomplished by Ricordi. (www.internationalposter.com)