Serravallo Bark and Iron Wine Tonic, 1890 to 1930s

Abstract

Abstract At the end of 19th century, Trieste, then the main city port of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, produced and exported alcoholic beverages all over the world, including to Islamic countries where alcohol consumption was forbidden. For the latter, beverages were disguised as “medicines”. The Serravallo pharmaceutical plant of Trieste took the lead, sending their medical liquors everywhere, up to the late 1930s. The present essay examines the network of distributors in the Levant and Asia, as well as the astonishingly vast set of supporting advertising instruments, precisely prepared in local languages.