A marine diesel stands on the open sea as if it were the vessel itself — hull-less, propellerless, an engine block riding its own black wake under a ringed sun. The script above says what it is; the block letters below say who sells it, and where.
«Motori Diesel marini» runs across the sky in copperplate. Beneath the drawing: ANSALDO, and then the practical part, rare in this collection — an actual address: SAVEM, Rome, Corso Vittorio Emanuele, exclusive concessionaire for the sale of Ansaldo marine engines «fino a 350 cavalli». Up to 350 horsepower: this is the small-engine end of a very large company, aimed at fishing boats, workboats and coasters, sold through a dealer like a car. A small printed number in the corner — 8129 — is a printer’s or order mark, not a signature.
Genoa’s oldest heavy name
Ansaldo rose at Sampierdarena, now part of Genoa, in 1853 as Gio. Ansaldo & C., and grew into one of the country’s great heavy-industrial groups — ships, locomotives, guns, engines — before folding into Finmeccanica in 1993. Its wartime face appears elsewhere in this collection, on the «Vincere!» sheet for the Cornigliano works; this page is the peacetime counterpart, a company selling horsepower over a counter in Rome.
Marks and date
The collector reads a vertical studio signature at the lower edge («Liguori-Carboni»); on our scan the lower margins carry only the print number and no legible signature. Published without an attribution; no printed date.
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
- Ansaldo — founded at Sampierdarena in 1853 as Gio. Ansaldo & C.
- The sheet itself, for SAVEM, the address and the 350-horsepower line.
