Vin Mariani

375, Lot: 795. Estimate $150. Sold for $500. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

FRANCE, Troisième République. 1870-1940. Silvered Æ Medal (37x52mm, 48.91 g, 12h). Angelo Mariani (1832-1914), Chemist and Inventor of Cocawine. By Eugène Mouchon. Dated 1905. Half-length figure of Angelo Mariani seated right at laboratory table, pipetting coca solution into bottle inscribed COCA MARIANI/PARIS in two lines; ANGELO MARIANI/VULGARISATEUR DE LA COCA in two lines in exergue; E. MOUCHON/1905 in two lines behind chair back / Nude native female, holding torch, kneeling left, holding branch of coca plant to flavor wine glass held aloft by man seated left on ground, wearing cloth covering him; at feet, an unlit torch; in background, additional jungle foliage, three llamas or alpacas, and mountains; above, Helios driving chariot right; E. MOUCHON in lower left corner. Edge: BRONZE and 1/J|D in square incuse. Forrer IV 177. EF, toned.

From the RBW Collection, purchased from Jan Lis, 12 January 2007.

When the phylloxera aphid arrived in France in 1862, it began to destroy huge quantities of grape harvests, leading to a tremendous wine shortage. As a result, French drinking habits began to incline towards spirits and fortified wines. In 1863, a Corsican chemist named Angelo Mariani (then 25 years old, far from the older man seen on this plaque) introduced his ‘Vin Mariani’, a drink based on Bordeaux wine infused with coca leaves, and began marketing it as a health tonic. The recommended dose was two to three glassfuls before or after a meal, and each fluid ounce contained 6 milligrams of cocaine.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the drink became very popular. Vin Mariani was one of the first products to be marketed via posters drawn by Jules Cheret, and advertising in other media featured the testimonials of famous Vin Mariani consumers, including Pope Leo XIII, who awarded Mariani a gold medal, the Russian Imperial family, Thomas Edison, and Sarah Bernhardt. When the tonic was exported to the United States, the amount of cocaine was increased to 7.2 milligrams per ounce in order to compete effectively with its main American rival, Coca Cola.

By 1910, as a result of the growing awareness of the severity of cocaine addiction, all cocaine was removed from Vin Mariani. Mariani himself died in 1914, leaving no record of the wine’s recipe.