Advertisement for 'Uricure' pills
Coloured lithograph by L Cappiello, 1910
Uricure was the brand name of a medicine used in cases of gout,
or metabolic arthritis. It was one of very many gout remedies
on the market, none of which could cure the disease but of all
which could reduce the intense pain and discomfort it caused. Given
the mass of rival products, vendors needed the best possible
publicity for their medicines.
This poster, published around 1910 to advertise Uricure in
Spain, is the work of the brilliant Italian designer Leonetto
Cappiello, who worked in Paris. His boldly coloured designs on a
black background made a strong impression on passers-by in the
Paris streets, and his work was much in demand. Uricure is now
remembered almost only for Cappiello's poster, not for its quality
as a medicine. The first medicine which, in the hands of a skilful
physician, could effectively cure gout was allopurinol, discovered
by George Hitchings, Gertude Elion and their colleagues in the
Burroughs Wellcome laboratories in the USA in the 1960s.