Booktryst Hits 1,000,000 and Plans For The Future

by Stephen J. Gertz

This week, Booktryst, established in May, 2010 to cover the world of rare books and cross-over to a general audience, exceeded 1,000,000 page-views. This stat, representing readership of Booktryst's deep archive of over 1,000 post-features with daily additions, has been our threshold for establishing a strong brand identity and international presence to justify a complete redesign of the site, and, importantly, to attract advertisers with well-developed real estate that has earned readers' loyalty and confidence.

That process is now underway; the new site will debut in the near future but not a moment sooner than necessary to get it right; we have thus far been very patient and see no reason to be otherwise. All advertising will be curated so that Booktryst readers can have confidence in our advertisers; the site will not be junked-up with ads from vendors of dubious virtue or products; advertisers will be vetted.

Of note to potential advertisers is that Booktryst has established a solid global identity. In descending order of national presence, Booktryst readership is strong in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, France, China, Australia, Germany, India, Italy, and Russia. Note the presence of China and India, currently #5 and #8 in our fan club, hugely important emerging marketplaces ripe for promoting your business to a well-defined target audience with increasing disposable income and anxious to spend it on goods and services of personal interest and importance.

Our ad rate card is in development. Interested advertisers may contact the publisher for details and to reserve space in advance of Booktryst's debut in new format.

Of importance to our loyal readers, Booktryst will continue to remain independent of the dealers whose offered volumes we often feature in our stories. Booktryst has never accepted fees for promoting dealers' stock and will never do so. All  books written about are chosen by the editor out of personal interest; we do not accept requests. We proudly promote the world of rare books and the trade but are not shills for individuals.

The new Booktryst is on the way. Keep watching the skies.

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Booktryst was recently the subject of a wonderful article in Americana Exchange Monthly, Booktryst - Blog Extraordinaire.

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A Lean. Mean Machine For Those Who Use Their Brains To Earn a Buck

By Stephen J. Gertz

The Royal Standard Typewriter is the ideal machine for the Author or Journalist, because of its versatility - added convenience. A literary man MUST be original: he should use the writing machine whose whole keynote is originality.

The Royal is not made especially for the use of writers, but for EVERYBODY who needs a typewriter. It is essentially the businessman's machine, complete in every detail.

Everything Included.
No Extras.
$75.

You've heard of the "master key" that fits every lock - did you ever hear of a Master-Model of a typewriter?

ONE STANDARD MODEL FOR ALL PURPOSES
One Typewriter With the Combined Advantages of Many!

Think of all the combined advantages of several typewriters you have seen, concentrated in ONE standard writing-machine that handles perfectly every known form of general correspondence and does card-writing and condensed billing besides - without a single extra attachment to complicate the mechanism or add extra cost to your typewriter equipment - and you will have a fairly good conception of the MASTER-MODEL of the Royal!

The Best Built Typewriter in the World

Write for the "Royal Book" - or send for a "Royal Man"

ROYAL TYPEWRITER COMPANY

Room 93, Royal Typewriter Building, NEW YORK

Branches and Agencies in All Parts of the World

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A literary man MUST be original: he should use the writing machine whose whole keynote is originality. Which is why I used a Royal Standard Typewriter to compose this post. I simply thought about it and the machine responded with original text. It's magic! And with the Royal Standard Typewriter I never experience the blue screen of death, so common with inferior machines of later invention.

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Full Disclosure: In 1913, the year this advertisement appeared and  thirty-eight years before I was born, I received a lifetime supply of typewriter ribbons from the Royal Typewriter Company in exchange for product placement and personal endorsement.

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American Rare Book Trade Ads From 1902, Part II

By Stephen J. Gertz

 

We continue with our three-part series on vintage rare book trade ads from The Literary Collector, 1902. You can catch-up with American Rare Book Trade Ads From 1902, Part I here.

There is no mention of our hapless bookseller S.F. McLean & Co. in Madeleine B. Stern's invaluable Antiquarian Bookselling in the United States: A History from the Origins to the 1940s (1985) or in Dickinson's Dictionary of American Antiquarian Booksellers (1998). We know from the firm's advertisement found in Part I of this series that McLean was enduring lean times. "Something wrong. Perhaps our books are N.G. Don't think they were priced too high." 

Above, however, McLean faces down the demon. Macmillan's beautiful 1898 edition of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam originally sold for $3.50. McLean offered an as new copy (perhaps a remainder) for 65¢. Find a copy now and it'll set you back $300-$400.

Stayed tuned for Part III of this series, in which S.F. McLean & Co. gets down to the real nitty-gritty in 36-point pica.

Advertisements for E.F. Bonaventure can be found as early as 1885.

"Additions to my stock are being made constantly, both by direct consignments from abroad and by the purchase of libraries amd private collections. As I visit the European Bookmarts annually, and have made arrangements with the principal publishers there, I receive all the finest publications, (especially Parisian), as soon as issued.

"I have on hand a large assortment of etchings and engravings — both Ancient and Modem — many in fine proof state," he declares in an 1885 catalog.

The Vale Press, established in England in 1896 by Charles Ricketts,  survived until 1905. It was amongst the great  publishers that emerged during the private press movement, a renaissance of fine printing and binding that was established as part of the Arts and Crafts movement in protest to mechanization

The press of Thomas B. Mosher fulfilled the same mission in the United States.

Booksellers Daniel O'Shea, E.W. Johnson, Davis' Bookstore, and Shepard Book Company escaped the notice of Stern and Dickinson. Of Shepard Book Company of Salt Lake City, Utah - "We carry the largest stock in the world of books on Mormonism, Anti-Mormonism and the West. Also curious, rare and old books on every subject" - all I can say is, Hello Ken Sanders Rare Books of SLC, "Creating Chaos Out Of Anarchy for a Better Tomorrow." Ken, known to the general public as the rare book appraiser on Antiques Roadshow with gray ponytail, long gray beard, and merry eyes that can melt your brain with their gaze and a heart that can melt yours, has successfully assumed Shepard Book Company's mission. Mrs. Helen Schlie is definitely not in the same league - nor on the same planet - with Ken.

George H. Richmond (1849-1904) began his career in the trade in 1877 as assistant to Robert H. Dodd, who managed the rare book department of Dodd, Mead, the bookshop that became a publisher. Leaving Dodd in 1892, he tried his hand at subscription publishing but, three years later, in 1895, bought the stock of a bookdealer and established his own shop. He was "one of the most able and daring of the New York booksellers."

The above 1902 advertisement for rare book dealer Edward Dressel North (1858-1945) is significant. That was the year he opened his own shop after an apprenticeship that began in the early 1880s as a cataloger for Scribner & Welford, a position he held until he opened his store. His was a diverse stock - American and English literature, European history, fine press books, art, architecture, travel and biography. His cataloging experience served him well. Through carefully written and edited sales catalogs he attracted the attention of the great tycoon book collectors. Henry C. Folger, Frank J. Hogan, and Henry E. Huntington became regular clients. His immortality, in my view, rests with his telling Huntington to take a hike.

"North never compromised his own professional independence. In March, 1919, when Huntington asked for a discount on a particular item, North told the California collector that he 'ran a one price shop and made it an unvarying rule not to allow a discount to anyone'" (Dickinson). Thereafter, Huntington, of course, bought from other dealers. North survived and thrived,. He, at times, rivaled Rosenbach in the auction rooms, much to Rosenbach's chagrin as he was often bidding on Huntington's behalf, who must surely have cursed North, who must surely have laughed.

More vintage trade ads in Part III.

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References:

STERN, Madeleine B. Antiquarian Bookselling in the United States (1985).
DICKINSON, Donald C. Dictinary of American Antiquarian Bookdealers (1998).

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Bookseller in 1770 England Also Sells Everything (Including Female Elixir)

By Stephen J. Gertz

WILLIAM GRIGG, 

Bookseller and Book-binder,
In the Exchange, Opposite to Broad-Gate,
in Exon

Sells, at the lowest prices, Books of all Sorts. Also all Kinds of Stationary Wares, viz., Writing Paper of all Sorts Wholesale and Retale; where may be had all Sorts of: Stamp-Paper for Writing's; Parchment & Vellum for Drum-heads; Letter Cases, Paper Books, Account Books; Japan Ink, Indian-Ink, Ink, and Ink Powder; Cards; Quills, Pens, Sand, Pounce, Sealing-Wax, and Wafers, Ink-pots of all Sorts; Slates, Pencils, Quadrants, Gunter's scales, and Compasses; with Choice of Maps and Pictures; likewise great variety of Paper Hangings for Rooms of the newest Patterns; also Violins, Bows, Bridges; German and Common Flutes, and other Musical Instruments; with Books of Instruction for the use of them, and Fiddlestrings; likewise Daffey's, Squire's, Bostocks, Ratcliff's, and Stoughton's. Cordial elixirs; Bateman's Pectoral Drops; Golden and Plain Spirits of Scurvy Grass; Godfrey's Cordial; Anderson's Scots Pills; Dr. Hooper's Female Pills; Fraunces's Female strengthening Elixir; Jackson's Tincture; Dr. James's Fever Powders; Baron Schwanberg's Liquid Shell; Dr. Greenough's Tinctures for preserving the Teeth, and for the Tooth-ach; and Turlington's Balsam of Life, so much approved; all warranted genuine; and he can supply by Wholesale Country Shoppers, and others, with Betton's genuine British Oil, as Cheap as immediately from the Maker.

N.B. And gives full Value, for any Library of Parcel of Books; and exchanges New Books for Old, and lends out Books to read; Almanackes, Daily Journals, and Court Kalendars, sold about Wholesale and Retail.

A peek into the hurly-burly world of bookselling in an eighteenth century English provincial city (Exeter) where the local bookshop often purveyed a wide variety of goods to remain a profitable enterprise, including spirits of scurvy grass (golden and plain) to, apparently, combat vitamin C deficiency while reading fruitless literature.

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This 14 x 8 cm advertising sheet was found within a copy of William Vicars' devotional work, A Companion to the Altar (London, 1757). ESTC, recording a copy pasted into another book, dates it to c. 1772 noting that Grigg first appeared in Exeter in 1765.

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Image courtesy of William Reese Co., currently offering this copy of A Companion to the Altar & this advert, with our thanks.

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Posters on Parade at Bloomsbury, 2

by Stephen J. Gertz

CAPPIELLO, Leonetto. Contratto.
Color lithograph, 1922.
Printed by Les Nouvelles Affiches Cappiello.

Last week's vintage poster sale at Bloomsbury Auctions - London brought some beautiful, striking, and unusual work into the spotlight.

CAPPIELLO, Leonetto. L'Oie d'Or.
Color lithograph, n.d.
Printed by Devambex.

We begin with examples by Leonetto Cappiello (1875-1942), the great Italian designer living in Paris whose innovative poster designs led to his being considered a father of modern advertising.

CAPPIELLO, Leonetto. Axa.
Color lithograph, 1931.
Printed by Devambex.

 

In contrast to earlier, painterly styles, Cappiello developed a startling approach with bold figures popping off  dark, often black backgrounds in stark contrast.

CAPPIELLO, Leonetto. Le Nil.
Color lithopgraph, n.d.
Printed by Vercasson.

Cappiello arrests attention, captures imagination, and holds the eyes hostage.

CAPPIELLO, Leonetto. La Tuberculose.
Color lithograph, c. 1930.
Printed by Devambex.

BONARD, J. Cafes Migora.
Color lithograph, n.d.
Printed by Azemard Cousins.

I don't drink it but I've love to wake up and smell the coffee if I woke up and saw this poster. Indeed, its electric, neon-like quality is so glowing I'd wake up, smell the whole world, and get a buzz from the colors, forget the caffeine. I've yet, alas, to find out anything about J. Bonard, its designer.

CASSANDRE (pseud. of Adolphe Mouron, (1901-1968).
Philips Television.
Color lithograph, 1951.

Adolphe Mouron aka Cassandre (1901-1968), the Ukranian-French artist, is, perhaps, best known for his 1935 poster design for the cruise ship Normandie, an iconic image. Establishing his own advertising agency, Alliance Graphique, he led the field with clever solutions to graphic challenges. And because typography is such an integral part of poster design, he also designed fonts. Above, an image from the emerging world of commercial television; the future is now.  But there's an unsettling, '50s sci-fi B-movie movie quality to the poster; cue the theremin, the future may not be as advertised. And, last time I checked, it wasn't.

LEVIN, M and TROYRVIKOV, V. Towards the Stars.
Color lithograph, 1968.

The space race provided opportunities for both the U.S. and Soviet Union to unify their respective citizens behind grand goals and inspire national pride. Until the U.S. eclipsed the U.S.S.R.. in 1969 with the first moon landing, the Soviets were ahead, proud, and prolific propagandists. I've yet to find out anything about Levin and Troyrvokov, the designers of Toward the Stars, but its image of a human space ship is simple, dramatic, and instantly memorable.

We switch gears into reverse, and travel further back in time...

ANQUETIN, Louis (1861-1932). Marguerite Dufay.
Lithograph in color, 1894.
Printed by Ancourt, Paris.

Who can forget Marguerite Dufay, the Parisian music hall trombonist, a comique excentrique entertainer known for her muscular performances? Work that 'bone slide, Maggie, 'great for the triceps!

ANONYMOUS. Veuve Amiot.
Color lithograph, n.d..
Printed by G. Bataille.

The above, anonymously designed poster for champagne Veuve Amiot, with its Art Nouveau and oriental influences, likely dates from around 1900-1910 before Cappiello altered the graphic design landscape. Cappiello later designed posters for Veuve Amiot.

GORDE, Gaston. Uriage les Bains.
Color lithograph, 1936.
Printed by Gorde & Boudry.

Forgive the whiplash but we snap back to the mid-1930s for Gaston Gorde's (1908-1995) unusual  Uriage les Bains, a hybrid of angular Art Deco and curvilinear Art Nouveau with a  hint of  Maxfield Parrish.

PAL (pseudo. of Jean de Paléologue 1855-1942).
La Peoria.
Color lithograph, n.d.
Printed by P. Lemenil.

During the 1880s, Peoria, IL was a major manufacturing center for bicycles, with the factories of Rouse Hazard Co. and Charles Duryea exporting bikes around the world. Just about anything stamped "Made in America" signaled quality. Little is known of lithographer and artist Jean de Paléologue, aka PAL, an American working in France. 

METLICOVITZ, Leopoldo (1868-1944). Fleur de Mousse.
Color lithograph, 1898.
Printed by Mouillot Fils Aine.

Leopoldo Metlicovitz began his career in 1891, joining the Ricordi lithograph workshop. He  became the firm's most prolific artist and, ultimately, art director, later offering his services to others. You can almost sense the aroma of the "foam flowers" that have captured and enraptured the woman in the image. It smells like ecstasy.

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Of related interest: Posters on Parade at Bloomsbury 1.

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Images courtesy of Bloomsbury, with our thanks.

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Tricks Of The Trade Revealed In Harvard Exhibit

By Nancy Mattoon

A Die-Cut Trade Card For
Colburn's Philadelphia Mustard, ca. 1875.
(All Images Courtesy of Baker Business Library.)

Harvard University Business School's Baker Library has digitized part of an immense collection of advertising ephemera, making images of 1,000 Victorian trade cards available online. The cards represent a "full range of products and businesses advertised through this medium from the 1870s through the 1890s." An online exhibit has also been created to spotlight this New and Wonderful Invention, one of the earliest forms of printed advertising used for nationwide commercial campaigns.

Trade Card For
Centemeri Kid Gloves, 1888.

Lavishly illustrated and lushly colored, with eye-catching images on the front and promotional text on the back, trade cards were produced by the hundreds of thousands and inserted into packages at the factory, handed out by retailers with every sale, or mailed to prospective customers. The images used often had little to do with the actual products, but the point was to attract the eye, and bring the manufacturer's name to the forefront. The industrialization and urbanization of post-Civil War America caused the rapid rise of new consumer markets. Manufacturers began to compete for customers through aggressive advertising, and the first attempts to create "brands" had begun.

Trade Card For Henry Martin's Furs, Ca. 1875.

Technological advances in printing, and the development of chromolithography in the mid-nineteenth century, led to the extensive use of color in commercial advertising. This allowed for greater use of illustrations, and the popularity of color advertising cards spread rapidly. By the early 1880s the chromolithographed trade card was being distributed widely by businesses ranging from small shops to large manufacturers. The 1876 Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia provided the first large-scale opportunity for commercial lithographers to display their products, as well as for a wide variety of businesses to hand out advertising cards flogging their goods and services.

Trade Card For Preston's
Infallible Yeast Powder, ca. 1880.

According to the Baker Library exhibit, "The great majority of trade cards printed in the late nineteenth century advertised household items, promoting everything from patent medicines, cosmetic products, and packaged foods to wringers, sewing machines and lawn mowers." Trade cards often provided an introduction to the idea of using manufactured products as replacements for items that were previously homemade. New marketing techniques, such as testimonials and premium offers were employed to promote the growing number of commercial products. Special novelty cards and cards issued in series were produced to encourage card collecting, which of course created brand loyalty and more product consumption. Soon, trademarks appeared on cards to maximize brand-name recognition and foster continued use of a particular product.

Trade Card For Brook's Spool Cotton, ca. 1880.

Trade cards featured all of the persuasive tools of the advertising game: alluring women, adorable children, cuddly animals, patriotic symbols, ethnic stereotypes, lush gardens, magical creatures, and exotic foreign destinations were all well represented. Industrialization was celebrated in scenes of urban growth, and the latest innovations in manufacturing and technology were shown as ushering in a new era of comfort and convenience. Home life never looked so good.

Trade Card For
Willamantic Thread, ca. 1885.

The public responded enthusiastically to this early use of colorful, eye-catching images, and collecting trade cards became a craze in the 1880s. Cards were swapped with friends, and collected and pasted into albums. As one of the most popular forms of advertising in the 19th century, trade cards reveal not just consumer habits, but also moral values and artistic trends. This makes them of interest to scholars of business, graphic design and printing, and social and cultural history. The popularity of the trade card peaked around 1890 and then faded by the end of the century, as mass-market magazine advertising became the preferred means of creating nationwide marketing campaigns.

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Legal Action Begins Against Crown/Decision Points "Limited" Edition

A Dallas attorney, Republican, and George W. Bush supporter initiates pre-litigation inquiry.

by Stephen J. Gertz

Legal action against Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House, for alleged deceptive trade practices regarding its limited edition of former President George W. Bush's book Decision Points has begun. A Dallas-based attorney, Mr. Grant Walsh, has sent a letter of intent to Crown. Booktryst has obtained a copy, which we reproduce in part:

Re: NOTICE TO PRESERVE EVIDENCE related to potential causes of action against The Crown Publishing Group, Random House, Inc., and their vendors and affiliates (collectively, “Crown”) regarding false and deceptive advertising for the “Limited Edition” version of Decision Points by President George W. Bush (the “Book”)

I have been contacted by a number of angry individuals—and potential clients—regarding the limited edition version of President George W. Bush’s Decision Points. In fact, I personally pre-ordered the Book in October 2010 based on the false and misleading statements by Crown, and I am extremely disappointed to learn that Crown has engaged in such deceptive actions regarding the true limited nature (or lack thereof) of the Book.

As you may recall, Crown issued a public press release dated April 26, 2010, in which the company made an affirmative representation that the book would be limited to just 1,000 printings. You were listed as the Crown’s point person in the press release. It is now my understanding that Crown’s public representations were patently false and misleading because at least 4,700 copies of the Book have been confirmed within the marketplace.

Under Texas law (as well as the statutes of virtually every state in the Union), Crown’s actions may constitute an unlawful and deceptive trade practice that may subject Crown to substantial legal and financial liability.

Notice of Potential Legal Action

Crown is hereby advised that I am in the process of investigating this matter to determine whether legal action is warranted against Crown for perpetrating a fraud upon the public and consumers of the Book.

Notice Regarding Preservation of Evidence

Crown (including its employees, agents, attorneys, vendors, and affiliates) must immediately suspend the normal retention and destruction policies for documents, communications (internal and external), electronically stored information, and tangible things. Further, Crown is instructed to preserve and retain all such records as they may relate to the marketing, manufacturing, publication, and sale of the “limited edition” printing of Decision Points by President George W. Bush. The failure to preserve and retain this information and documentary evidence may constitute “spoliation of evidence” and subject Crown to additional legal claims for damages or monetary sanctions.

If my ongoing investigation leads to litigation of my clients’ legal claims, I anticipate that I will serve a formal Request for Production on Crown and any other individuals or entities that may possess relevant evidence, documents, communications, electronically stored information, and tangible things. Thus, Crown has an obligation to take reasonable steps to ensure that all relevant evidence, documents, electronically stored information, and tangible things are safeguarded and preserved until the resolution of this legal matter. 

When you announce a print run of 1,000 copies at $350 each, then up the print run to 4,700 without notice of any kind nor reduction in price, people will get angry. Mr. Walsh invites all who may wish to join this claim to contact him.

Crown Offers Rebate to Supplement Existing Refund

Crown Sr. V.P., Exec. Director Publicity, David Drake,  could not comment upon ongoing legal issues but did notify Booktryst about a rebate program that Crown has  initiated within the last 48 hrs, subsequent, it appears, to receiving Mr. Walsh's legal notice.

"We have posted a notice to consumers on the Crown Publishing Group website which provides full details on how consumers can apply for a rebate. The notice to consumers includes a link to a Rebate Request / Declaration form that consumers must complete and return to Random House by June 30, 2011 along with a proof of purchase (either receipt; copy of credit card statement showing charge; or copy of check that was used to purchase the limited edition). The Rebate Request / Declaration is housed on our server here.

"There is no corresponding deadline for refund requests.

"Random House Customer Service will also be sending an email tomorrow to all consumers who purchased the limited edition directly from Random House, notifying them of the rebate. Customers who purchased the limited edition of Decision Points directly from Random House will not be required to provide a proof of purchase to apply for a rebate.

"Under this rebate offer, Crown will issue consumers a rebate from the full purchase price (including sales tax) paid for the book, not to exceed the publisher’s list price of $350, so that the resulting net purchase price will be $50.00. By way of example, if the book was purchased for $200, a rebate check for $150, plus any amount paid in sales tax, will be issued."

In short, buyers of the limited edition will have their purchase price discounted to net $50 with the rebate. We are pleased that Crown has initiated this rebate program. Whether  based upon our suggestion in a prior post or otherwise it's the right thing to do.

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Booktryst's coverage of this sorry saga began on November 11, 2010.
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Sex, Drugs, and Vintage Ink Blotters?

by Stephen J. Gertz

Abbott's ABD Malt, c. 1925.
6 1/4 x 3 1/2 inches.

They are quaint reminders of a bygone era, a time when pens were dipped into an inkwell and, later, fitted with a cartridge or bladder "fountain" filled with ink. Writing was challenging; the ink could easily smear before it dried and it often left blotches on the paper. The excess ink required frequent blotting to prevent a mess; hence the necessity of ink blotters; heavy, highly absorbent papers.

Ink blotters had been around since the fifteenth century, the papers used by themselves or affixed by clips to a wooden block curved along its bottom to allow for rocking motion across the inked document, a more efficient and tidy manner than a flat block allowed. Used with a block, each was approximately 6 x 3 inches.

Abbott Laboratories Ltd. Montreal., c. 1930.
6 1/4" x 3 1/2 inches.

Schering (Canada) Limited. Montreal, c. 1925.
 3/4 x 3 3/4 inches.

By the early twentieth century it became clear that these simple, blank blotting papers provided an excellent medium for advertising all manner of product and service; blotters were found in offices and homes, used daily and often by millions. Ink blotters provided advertisers with a huge potential audience at little cost for maximum exposure. By the 1920s-1930s promotional ink blotters were ubiquitous. 

Merck & Co. Inc. Rahway, N. J., c. 1925.
7 1/2 x 3 1/2 inches.

Swan-Myers Co. Montreal, c. 1930.
5 3/4 x 3 3/4 inches.

Schering (Canada) Ltd. Montreal, c. 1920s.
6 1/4 x 4 inches.
Bottoms Up!

For pharmaceutical companies, advertising via ink blotters allowed for an end-run around laws prohibiting advertising in standard media for prescription drugs, i.e. extracts of digitalis, phenobarbitol; pharmaceutical salesmen calling on doctors handed them out to promote their company's product. And they were widely distributed to heavily promote over-the-counter nostrums to the general public.

Mistol. USA,  1925.
6 1/4" x 4 inches.

Rogerson Coal Co. Toronto, c. 1920s.
6 x 3 1/2 inches.
Joy Coke - A High Grade Fuel.

Swan-Myers Co. Indianapolis. Montreal/Toronto Distributor, c. 1920s.
6" x 3 1/2 inches.

And, no surprise, sex was used to move the merchandise - even a commodity as bland as sand. This Mr. Sandman brought dreams guaranteed to keep a man awake and busy with his fountain pen, defying him to blot these sweet dreams out of his memory.

"My [illegible] Shadow."
c.1940s.

"I'm Putting on the Finishing Touch."
c. 1940s.

"Of course you have to use your imagination."
c. 1940s.

Need insurance and bonding? Gance & Wonger insure that wangers will not wilt. A customer service call girl awaits your claim.

"There must be something wrong with my line."
c. 1940s.

Of course, after all the sex and drugs, you may require something to blot out the cost of excess. The following product provides gland treatment for sexual neurasthenia, aka the doused-fire down below, the withered stones, the weathered seed, and subsequent winter of our discontent. Trust Homovir to restore Man Virility.

Anglo-French Drug Co., Montreal, c. 1920
3 x 5 3/4 inches.
"Gland Treatment regulating nerve and essential power."

Ink blotters are about as ephemeral as ephemera gets. Never meant to be saved, they were frequently used and tossed out, literally throw-aways given away by the advertiser for promotional purposes. That any have survived is something of a miracle, more so than the advertising cookbooks we've previously written about on Booktryst.

Vintage ink blotters are a fun, inexpensive entry-point for collectors that capture an era in writing long gone within the context of American pop-culture of the early-mid twentieth century, graphically interesting and fascinating slices of history.

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Images of drug ink blotters courtesy of David Mason Books.

Images of 40s pin-up ink blotters courtesy of Esnarf.com.

All blotters pictured are currently offered for sale by the above dealers.

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Betty Crocker's Ancestors: Vintage Advertising Cookbooks

by Stephen J. Gertz

Magic Cookbook and Housekeepers Guide
Toronto: E. W. Gillett, Co., n.d. (ca. 192-?)
5 1/2 x 3 1/4 in. Wrappers.  62pp.

In 1474 the Italian humanist Bartolomeo Platina (1421-1481) compiled and published in Rome the first printed and dated cookbook, De honesta voluptate et valetudine, Libri de arte coquinaria, haute cuisine, Libro novo (Of Honorable Pleasure and Health), a monument to medieval and Renaissance cuisine. In Latin, it was reprinted in many subsequent editions, and translated into Italian, German, and French (it was a best-seller in Paris). In 1475 Platina was  named Vatican librarian by Pope Sixtus IV.

Pope Sixtus IV appoints Bartolomeo Platina prefect of the Vatican Library.
Fresco by Melozzo da Forlì, c. 1477 (Vatican Museums)

Eleven years later, in 1486, Küchenmeisterei (Cooking Mastery), a book sometimes and erroneously attributed to Gutenberg (out of business since the late 1450s, his print shop taken over by his financial partner, Johann Fust, after a lawsuit in 1455), was published by Peter Wagner (f. 1483-1500) in Nuremberg.

These cook books in print - the earliest known - were successfully sent out into the world for sale at a profit. At some point, however, in the early 1900s, a brilliant marketer decided to publish a recipe book to promote the sale of his product. Very soon, just about every manufacturer of foodstuffs adopted the idea and a minor deluge of small, branded cookbooks in softcover flooded the marketplace.

Reliable Recipes
Chicago: Calumet Baking Powder Co., n.d. (ca. 192-?)
5 1/4" x 8 1/2 in. Wrappers. 80pp.
With colour and b/w illustrations.

The books were free. The point was to spread the word about the superiority of the product and the many ways it could be used to transform the average housewife into a kitchen-to-dinner table goddess and thus win the hearts of husband, children, and dinner guests; the books "encouraged women to diligently and happily cook family meals" (Neuhaus, J. Manly Meals and Mom's Home Cooking: Cookbooks and Gender in Modern America, 2003).

Royal Baker and Pastry Cook
New York: Royal Baking Powder Co., (c. 1902).
8 x 5 in. Wrappers. 42pp.

It was a great way to move merchandise off the shelves, a brilliant stroke of huckster advertising that was highly successful in marketing the slew of new convenience foods and old staples by presenting different and useful recipes that incorporated the product.

Yeast Foam Recipes
(Chicago): (Northwestern Yeast Co.), n.d. (ca. 193-?).
 6 x 3 in. Wrappers with single staple at top.
12pp. With illustrations.

The success of these branded cookbooks reflected the Home Economics movement of the late nineteenth century that continued at full steam into the twentieth century, college women studying "domestic science" to improve the nutrition and health of the family.

Salad Secrets
Montreal: Colman-Keen, 1928.
8 1/4 x 5 1/2 in. Wrappers. 22pp.

A Friend in Need
(Montreal): Church & Dwight, (c. 1924).
5 1/2 x 3 1/2 in. Wrappers. 28pp.

"Typical upwardly-aspiring Anglo-American middle class families in the 1910s took cues from meals suggested by period cook books. Technology was moving quickly; foods were readily available, in and out of season. World War I imposed unexpected challenges. Here we catch early glimpses of American discomfit reconciling traditional Old World dishes (read: heritage) with newly formed alliances (read: opportunity). Most American print sources proclaim culinary nationalism (aka the 'melting pot') was summarily celebrated and embraced. For the unity of the country. How else to explain Lasagne with American cheese and Chop Suey with American hamburger?" (Food Timeline.org).

Good Things To Eat
Montreal: Church & Dwight, c. 1924.
5 1/2 x 3 1/2 in. Wrappers. 32pp.

The Magic Baking Powder Cookbook
Toronto: E. W. Gillett, Co., n.d. (ca. 193-?).
9 x 6 in. Wrappers. 32pp.

There was the belief "that the application of science to domestic problems could save society from the social disintegration they saw at the turn of the century. This program of science education for women had benefits and limitations. On the positive side, women could pursue science degrees in higher education....

Magic Cookbook and Housekeepers Guide
Toronto: E. W. Gillett Co., n.d. (ca. 192-?).
5 3/4 x 3 1/2 in. Wrappers. (64)pp.

Sixty-Five Delicious Recipes Made With Bread
(Philadelphia): The Fleischmann Co. (yeast), (c. 1919).
7 x 5 in. Wrappers. 32pp. With illustrations.

"...On the negative side, the existence of home economics departments enabled schools to direct women interested in science into a sex‐segregated educational track and sex‐segregated occupations, with relatively low prestige and limited resources" (Paul S. Boyer. Home Economics Movement. The Oxford Companion to United States History).

The Art of Baking Bread
Chicago: Northwestern Yeast Co., n.d. (ca. 192-?)..
8 x 5 in. Wrappers. 16pp. With colour illustrations.

Baumert Cheese Recipes
NP: (F. X. Baumert Co.), (ca. 192-?).
6 1/2 x 4 3/4 in. Wrappers. 30pp.
With colour and b/w illustrations.
"Compliments of Chateau Cheese Co. Ltd. Ottawa"

Amaizo Cook Book
New York: American Maize-Products Co., 1926.
6 x 9 in. Wrappers. 38pp.

The Genesee Pure Food Company, makers of Jell-O, was the first to issue promotional cookbooks in a major way. A product of the Victorian Age, Jell-O was introduced by carpenter and cough syrup manufacturer Pearle B. Wait in 1897. It flopped. In 1899 Wait sold the patent to Orator F. Woodward for $450, and Woodward, a marketing whiz, began to heavily advertise the product. Jell-O remained a minor success until 1904 when Genesee blanketed the nation with salesmen to distribute free Jell-O cookbooks, a pioneering marketing tactic at the time. 

The Jell-O Cook Book
Le Roy, NY: Genesee Pure Food Company, n.d. (c. 1910-15)

"In some years as many as fifteen million booklets were distributed. Noted artists such as Rose O'Neill, Maxfield Parrish, Coles Phillips, Norman Rockwell, Linn Ball, and Angus MacDonald made Jell-O a household word with their colored illustrations" (Le Roy, NY Historical Society).

By 1909, gross sales of Jell-O reached over a million dollars. There was no disputing the power of advertising cookbooks to sell product, and more than a few manufacturers adopted the tactic. By 1913, Jell-O sales had doubled. If there was any doubt left about the magic that these branded cookbooks could conjure for the bottom-line it disappeared in a puff of smoke, and just about every company involved in selling foodstuffs published them.

Betty Crocker's  Picture Cookbook
NY: McGraw-Hill/Genreal Mills, 1950.
First edition.

This ultimately led to the most popular branded cookbook ever published, Betty Crocker's Picture Cookbook, the brainchild of General Mills which created the fictitious character to pitch their flour, introduced her through promotional cookbook pamphlets, then on the new medium of radio in the country's first cooking show, and later, in 1950, published what would become the most popular cookbook of all time, Betty Crocker's magnum opus. By 1991, in its seventh edition, it had sold twenty-six million copies and an incredible number of General Mills products.

These early advertising cookbooks are fun and not terribly expensive to collect for the info, the illustrations, and their history: vintage slices of American domestic life and womanhood.
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With the exception of the Amaizo, Betty Crocker, and Jello cookbooks, all images courtesy of David Mason Books eList 22/
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