Armi della morte - armi per la vita! Sottoscrivete al prestito della vittoria (Weapons of death, weapons for life! Subscribe to the Victory Loan)
An Italian loan poster shows two bare-chested smiths at a forge hammering a sword into a ploughshare, laurel branches at the foot, under the legend 'Weapons of death - weapons for life! Subscribe to the Victory Loan.' The tell is that abstractions ('death', 'life', 'victory') carry the appeal with no rate, price or maturity printed, while the swords-into-ploughshares image lends peaceful-labour prestige to a war-finance ask.
- Date
- 1918
- Period
- First World War
- Made by
- Kingdom of Italy (national war-loan appeal; sponsor not named on the sheet); artist T. Corbella, printed by Stab. Lit. E. Guazzoni, Rome
- Region
- Western and Central Europe
- Country
- Kingdom of Italy
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- State
- Regime
- Orlando Government
- Leader
- Vittorio Emanuele Orlando
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Fundraise
- Themes
- Economy and finance, War and the military, Home front
- Event
- World War I
- Techniques
- Glittering generalitiesTransfer
- Source
- Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- Source
- Library of Congress, retrieved September 29, 2026
- Rights
- Public domain (published 1918; LOC: no known restrictions on publication)
T. Corbella; Stab. Lit. E. Guazzoni, Rome, 1918. Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, LC-USZC4-12054.
Text on the object
"ARMI DELLA MORTE-ARMI PER LA VITA! SOTTOSCRIVETE AL PRESTITO DELLA VITTORIA" T. CORBELLA [printer's roundel, lower left, partly legible: STAB. LIT. E. GUAZZONI]
"Weapons of death - weapons for life! Subscribe to the Victory Loan" T. Corbella [printer's roundel: Lithographic works E. Guazzoni]
The printer's roundel is small and only partly legible on the scan; its reading follows the LOC record's publication statement (Roma: Stab. Lit. E. Guazzoni).
