What a design! This sun-like orange face, licking its lips in excitement, as it gazes up at a bottle of Rossi Vin Apéritif. The bottle has an American flag and an Italian flag sticking out of the bottle top, referring to the famous Americano cocktail, made of Campari Bitter liqueur, Red Martini sweet vermouth and Club Soda. The cocktail was meant to offer the drinker a combination of Italian taste with American style. This stunning piece is made after a classic Italian advertising poster by the hand of Jean Droit (FR, 1884-1961) in the 1920’s, and later in 1928 produced as an enamel advertising sign at the Emaillerie Belge in Brussels. Jean Droit, born in Luneville/France, was a French painter, writer and illustrator. Raised in a middle-class family, he moved to Courcelles-Motte/Belgium with his family at the age of 8, where his father ran the Saint-Gobain iceworks. From his earliest youth, Jean Droit showed himself to be a born artist, above all a watercolorist. Around 1911 a first exhibition of Jean Droit’s watercolors was held at the Galerie du Roy in Brussels. At the end of the Great War 1914-1918, he settled in France and got married to Suzanne Plisson who nursed him during/after the war. His posters, and later his illustrations on all subjects, portraits and others, published by numerous magazines and in luxury books, are universally known and appreciated. In 1928 the Emaillerie Belge produced at the same time a completing sign in identical size for Martini. A design by the great Leonetto Cappiello making this inseparable duo set complete. The competition was real at the time, since we know that Jean Droit also designed for Martini.