Plaque Medal Advertising Mariani Wine, ca. 1908

This advertising plaque depicts a young man accepting a bottle of wine from an old man on the front. The bottle bears the inscription Vin Mariani. On the back, between an oak and a laurel tree, a bottle is depicted with the inscription Coca Mariani. In fact, the Vin Mariani was a drink consisting of a combination of Bordeaux wine and an infusion of coca leaves. American John Pemberton would make a non-alcoholic version of it in 1886 and call it Coca-Cola. This plaque was exhibited by Louis Patriarche at the Paris Salon in 1908 and at the International Medallic Exhibition in New York in 1910 and also in Brussels at the Medallic Salon held on the occasion of the 1910 World's Fair. Patriarche also made a medal with the image of Mrs Mariani which was exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1913. Engraver Roty also designed a plaque for Mariani's wine and exhibited the drawn designs for it. She is depicted by Mark Jones in his "The Art of the Medal" (1979).