1910 Original Vintage Film Poster for 'Ein Tag in der Opium-Höhle'
Record status
Individual type · partial
Period
1910
This original vintage lithographic film poster promotes the silent film 'Ein Tag in der Opium-Höhle' ('A Day in the Opium Den'), created around 1910. The poster serves as a striking example of early 20th-century cinema advertising, characterized by sensational and theatrical imagery designed to captivate audiences with themes of exoticism, moral peril, and psychological fantasy.
The composition is highly surreal, depicting a reclining figure smoking opium in a dreamlike interior while hallucinations manifest as floating faces, daggers, a mermaid-like figure, and spectral women emerging from swirling smoke. The richly colored artwork utilizes motifs of the period's fascination with the 'East' to suggest forbidden experiences. The poster is conservation mounted and linen-backed, measuring 49.5 by 37.75 inches.
While the specific artist is not definitively identified, the work is attributed to a Vienna-based lithographic studio or designer, noted in the period context of early film culture. It stands as a significant promotional artifact from an era when bold, graphic visuals were essential for attracting viewers to theatrical exhibitions.
Evidence at a glance
- Linked sources
- 1
- Photograph views
- 1
- Catalogue references
- 0
Counts describe this entry’s documentation, not authenticity, rarity or completeness. Photographs may show one specimen; check each caption and licence.
Physical characteristics
- Mounting
- Conservation mounted and linen backed
- Dimensions
- 49.5 x 37.75 inches
Technical characteristics
- Printing
- Lithograph
Design
- Style
- Symbolism, theatrical illustration
- Subject
- A Day in the Opium Den / Ein Tag in der Opium-Höhle
Identification
- Source note
- Described from a single auction-house listing published on Invaluable (reproduced with Invaluable's permission). Details apply to that one example; other examples of the type may differ, and the listing is supplementary evidence, not authentication.
- Maker named in listing
- Weiner
Catalogue references
No catalogue numbers recorded. Numbers are only published once transcribed from a verified edition of a standard catalogue — they are never inferred.