The collection of wine catalogues were printed originally by the famous wine merchant Etablissements Nicolas Maison from 1929-1973. In the years 1937, 1940-1948, 1952, and 1968, no catalogues were published. The design was by Alfred Latour and, starting in 1966, by his son Jean Latour.
Alfred Latour (1888-1968) was a successful graphic designer among other artistic disciplines. Up until 1966, the Etablissements Nicolas Maison Fondee employed Alfred exclusively to design these rare advertisement/marketing gems. All issues were printed by Draeger Freres.
Nicolas’ catalogues were illustrated and designed by famous artists and typographers. The illustrations were rendered using different techniques, including four-color printing, lithography, photomontage, and screen printing. The catalogue of 1972 was rendered lithographically and illustrated with thirteen gouaches by Andre Derain.
The Wine History Project of San Luis Obispo County’s collection include all first printing with softcovers.
Instructions On Viewing The Gallery Below
Below are images of the catalogues by Nicolas Maison. You can view them by clicking on the image to enlarge it, hitting the arrows on the edges of the screen to view the different images, or using your arrow keys to navigate through the exhibit. Click on the image to view the artist for each catalogue with their birth and death date.
