Aurelio Bertiglia WW1 Mocking Postcards

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Look in most postcard catalogues or reference books and you'll see Bertiglia listed among those postcard artists who focused on children and childhood images. Bertiglia postcards almost always feature children. Illustrated with slightly bulging eyes, it's a style that once seen is easy to recognise again even if the postcard is unsigned.

For me however, the more interesting Bertiglia postcards are the comic propaganda and mocking postcards produced during the 1914 1918 First World War. Yes, images of children were still used, but they were depicted as military or patriotic figures and always with a sense of humour that mocked the enemy.

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Above, I've attached two representative examples. One has allied soldier children expressing a view on the enemy use of poison gas, the other has the allies celebrating victory as the enemy watches on from the window.

Aurelio Bertiglia was born in Turin in 1891 and started work at the age of 14. Today Bertiglia 'children' postcards fetch a few pounds (in 2007 around six to eight pounds, that's twelve to sixteen dollars), however the Bertiglia WW1 propaganda and mocking postcards are in much greater demand and command a premium price.

At the base of this article is a WW1 Bertiglia postcard that is more glamour than childhood, but still very much mocking the enemy. A camp fire with rifles forming a support for a German military helmet in which the food is to be cooked. To the left the German Eagle is being plucked by the Russian Bear, a British Soldier and a Woman of France, a brave little Belgian child sits tending the fire.....

From About Postcards. We trade as Allotment for theme postcards and as ukPostcards for British topographic.