Advertisement printing and package design: archeologists find lithography prints with 19th-20th-century brands

The excavation at Staromonetny Pereulok gave the city an entire collection of lithographic printing stones dating back to the 19th and the 20th century. The nine plates they found were all used in printing. Most likely, they were intended for making packaging or advertisements for multiple types of products: chocolate, eau de Cologne, lipstick, canned vegetables, vodka and liqueurs, face cream. Each plate bears imprints for brands popular at the time.

We know that a printing house with storage and garage facilities used to be located in Staromonetny Pereulok in the mid-20th century. It’s quite possible that printing services had been provided there even earlier than that.

“Our archeology research discovered fragments of lithographic printing stones dated around the late 19th – early 20th centuries. They got into the occupation debris because a printing house used to stand there. Most likely, they were used as construction material for a small service facility in the 20th century. We found over 100 fragments of lithographic plates with various printing templates,” Alexey Yemelyanov, Head of the Moscow Department of Cultural Heritage, told us.

They found plates with prints that read: “Chocolate”, “Orange”, “Apricot”, “Cherry”, “Tea No.7”. In addition to that, there are prints referring to “Mariinsky Trade House”, “Parovoy Vodka and Liqueur Distillery” in Lipetsk, together with the names of their products: “Quinine Vodka” and their descriptions: “No.English 0. Bitter Top Grade”.

One of the plates has a portrait of Nicholas II. There are imprints in the Russian, Polish, English and French languages. The Imperial Society of Devotees of Social Science, founded in 1863, also gets a mention. Another fragment has the name and the markings of the Exposition Universelle of 1900 (1900 Paris Exposition).

One of the most interesting finds is a plate with colored label imprints for lipstick produced by Rallen Partnership. Notably, every imprint has process marks indicating the colors used.

Some of the finds bear the brands of canned goods: “Pickled Mix”, “Tasty Canned Goods, 1st Homemade Production”, “Gherkins”.

On top of that, there are some production stamps from Henrich Brokar’s cosmetics factory (“Floral Cologne”) and mentions of the legendary Einem Confectionery (which later went on to become Krasny Oktyabr). Chocolat Noisette aux noix entieres Einem Moscow, “Noisette Whole Nuts Chocolates Einem Moscow”. One of the plates bears the name of a mysterious product: Metamorphosa. Supposedly it was a freckle whitening cream. Right now, archeologists are studying the plates they’ve found. Later, they’re going to be handed to the various Moscow museums.

Lithography is a type of printed graphics that, unlike engraving, is based on planographic printing involving transferring ink from a flat printing plate to paper under pressure. The lithography method is based on a physical and chemical process presupposing printing from the surface of a special lithographic plate treated chemically in such a way that some areas of it take the ink while the others repel it.

Lithographic plates are polished using water-sand suspension that makes them absolutely smooth or slightly rough. Images on them are created with lithographic crayons in a number of ways: filling, hatching, or sgraffito (grattage).

Lithography was invented in the late 18th century. It was an absolutely new printing method radically different from the woodprint that originated in the 15th century. Lithography quickly gained popularity. In the 20th century, it split off into a separate type of line art. Offset printing and zincpgraphy started to be used to reproduce graphics, photographs and paintings.

Hundreds of historical artefacts were discovered during the earlier archeology research at and around Staromonetny Pereulok. Turns out, the occupation debris in that area (the depth of soil preserving items or their fragments from a certain time period) is four meters thick. The findings are from different periods, from the 15th to the early 20th century. The digs yielded one of the largest collections of period artefacts found together on one street. In total, they found over 900 whole items and over 20,000 fragments.