Some time ago I was asked if I knew who was responsible for the illustrations on Bernard’s packaging. The question was never asked and no one ever sought an answer. You could say that it is quite an interesting topic, because many of the company’s packaging did indeed present labels with an exceptional artistic sense.

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I have no idea whether the creator is the same for most of the labels, or just for this one example, but the image of the monk that appears on the Klostermischung packaging is attributed to Franz Theodor Würbel (1858-1941), an Austrian painter and commercial graphic artist.

Such a curiosity for today.

It is worth mentioning that the polar bear on the “Polar Prise” packaging comes from a photo taken in 1996 by Ansgar Walk.

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Behind the Steife Prise label there is actually a painting called “The Macquarie Leaving Sydney” (c.1945) by John Allcot.

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If anyone is likely to know something about the art work you won’t do better than to contact the Schnupftabakmuseum (Snuff Museum) in Grafenau, Bavaria. You can find contact details online. I’m sure they would welcome any interest in a question of this kind. The museum is, I believe, the only museum of its kind in the world.

Despite the fact that there are two snuff museums in Poland, I don’t think they will come close to the size of the artifacts collected in Grafenau. I don’t think they would be able to answer difficult snuff issues either, and apparently the German one functions fantastically, so it might actually be a good idea to write to them. I have one such difficult question about the genesis of one story that I included in my book that I wonder if they know anything about it.

I suspect the question has overwhelmed them, as I have not received any response so far. I also have my doubts as to whether they would respond to the illustrations on the packagings.