The hero of this page is a rope. It winds across a map, ties together photographs of a ship and of spinning machinery, and ends by underlining the words «esportazione in tutto il mondo». Flax and hemp were the fibres Italy grew at home — and this was the company that worked them.
The banner reads «Per l’autarchia — FORZE DEL LAVORO ITALIANO», placing the sheet in the same series as the oil derricks, wool mills and banks of this campaign. The copy at the foot is a full paragraph of corporate confidence: to the vast production and infinite applications of hemp and flax, «pregiate materie prime nazionali» — prized national raw materials — the company has given grand technical and financial means, half a century of experience, and a prestige «senza rivali in tutto il mondo». Then the name: LINIFICIO E CANAPIFICIO NAZIONALE.
Half a century, counted from 1873
The boast about «half a century of experience» is, if anything, modest. The Linificio e Canapificio Nazionale was founded on 14 January 1873 by the Milanese entrepreneur Andrea Ponti, merging linen mills at Fara Gera d’Adda and Cassano d’Adda, with Villa d’Almè added in 1920; the company’s own history calls it the most important company in the world for the processing of hemp and linen, and it still spins today, a century and a half on. In the autarky years its position was enviable: while cotton had to be imported and substituted, flax and hemp grew in Italian fields, which is why this sheet can promise both self-sufficiency and export in the same breath.
Marks and date
The collector attributes this sheet, like the rest of this group, to the graphic designer Erberto Carboni, reading a circular EC monogram on the page; on our scan the small circular mark is the agency roundel with «MILANO» beneath it that recurs across the whole series, and no legible artist’s monogram resolves. The sheet is published without an attribution and carries no printed date; the campaign places it in the late 1930s.
About this image. The work is still protected by copyright: under Italian law (L. 633/1941) rights run for 70 years from the death of the author. Since the author has not been identified, that term cannot be considered expired, and the image is treated as fully protected. It is reproduced here for documentation, study and critical purposes only, under Art. 70 of L. 633/1941 and the fair-use provision of 17 U.S.C. §107. The scan was made by the collector from his own copy of the sheet, part of the period material he keeps in a private archive: owning the physical sheet is not the same as holding the rights to the work. The image is not offered for sale, no reproduction rights are granted, and any request concerning the work should be addressed to the rights holders. Cultural Heritage Online publishes this material to document it, with no celebratory intent; see our terms and the DMCA contact published there.
Sources
- Linificio e Canapificio Nazionale — foundation on 14 January 1873 by Andrea Ponti, the Fara Gera d’Adda and Cassano mills
- The sheet itself, for the slogans, the copy and the agency roundel.
