The Lyric Watermelon is the second of the two litho-tins, the futurist books printed in silkscreen on tin. The first is Parole in libertà futuriste olattive tattili termiche by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti and Tullio d'Albisola, published in 1932. The Lyric Watermelon - printed in 101 copies, only 50 of which were put on sale - is the third editorial work of Munari and was exhibited and awarded in Paris at the exhibition of decorative graphics.
The term litho-tin was coined by the industrialist Vincenzo Nosenzo of Savona, a producer of metal food cans printed in lithography; the dedication in the book is to him "to the friend captain... brilliant bold dynamic industrialist creator of litho-tin futurist publisher unique in the world". We read in Marinetti's introduction: "In the LITO-LATTA factory in Savona, where the wide tin of the sea is printed with the round golden stone of the sun and the square turquoise of the sky, among crowds of beautiful workers whose bright black eyes compete with the fast paints of the cars, among dives of red-brown athletic muscles down to break liquid cobalts, the first entirely metallic tin book tinkled and was born...".
Andel, Avant-garde Layout Design 1900-1950, p. 115; Cammarota, Futurism , 135.2.