Talmone Kiosk
Catalog Level
Items (Cataloging Focus)
Title Proper/Title Text
Talmone Kiosk
Date of Publication/Creation Date
October, 1911
Place of Publication/Creation Place
Milan
Related Built Environment Objects
Descriptive Note Text
TThis black-and-white archival photograph shows the Talmone Kiosk, a commercial exhibition kiosk promoting the Talmone chocolate company, one of Turin's well-known confectionery makers at the time.
The building is designed in an Egyptian Revival style, a decorative architectural mode that drew on ancient Egyptian temple forms to create a striking, exotic visual identity for the brand. The structure features a flat-roofed, tower-like massing with two distinct rectangular blocks of different heights, evoking the silhouette of Egyptian pylon gateways. A bold cornice, the characteristic flared, outward-curving cornice seen on Egyptian temples, caps the upper portion of the taller section.
Along the front of the building runs a row of papyrus-bundle columns, slender shafts gathered to resemble bundled papyrus stalks and topped with capitals carved to look like papyrus blossoms. Below these columns, the façade is decorated with a frieze of stylized human or deity heads set within square niches, suggesting carved relief portraits in the Egyptian manner. The building's name appears in large lettering across the upper façade, identifying it as the Talmone pavilion.
The entrance is reached by a short flight of steps, and the doorway itself appears to be framed by a tall, narrow opening consistent with temple-gate proportions. Two figures stand near the entrance, and their presence helps convey the modest scale of the building relative to a true monumental temple. In front of the kiosk, a graveled or stone-bordered path curves through what appears to be a planted lawn area, with low shrubs near the building's base, while open grounds extend into the foreground of the image.
Related Work/Label Identification
This photograph was published in Le Esposizioni di Roma e di Torino nel 1911 descritte ed illustrate, n°39, October 1911, 320.
Related Archival Material
Current Repository/Geographic Location
Cristina Della Coletta Private Collection (San Diego, USA)
Current Repository Numbers
CDC-MA-LERT-0001-320-4