Handbook of Early Advertising Art: Pictorial

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Summary: The elegant roots of commercial art
Review: This work provides the largest collection of copyright-free early advertising art ever compiled, containing the best commercial art from the time of Benjamin Franklin up to the 1890s with contributions by Nast, Bewick and many other early illustrators and artists.

Collected from both European and American sources, the artworks comprise scores of illustrations all systematically arranged and classified for easy reference. Pictorial material is grouped together according to subject and use. A lot of this material is unique and appears only here or scattered as individual cuts in rare out-of-print books. Most have never been reproduced in any other collection.

This pictorial volume contains more than 2000 illustrations, including animals, agricultural cuts, vintage cars, birds, buildings, articles of clothing, allegorical figures, Thanksgiving motifs, food and drink, hands, horse-drawn vehicles, fire engines, patriotic motifs, ships, symbols, musical instruments, sports and games, trade cuts, pictorial trade advertisements, trains plus Christmas and New Year themes.

Handbook Of Early Advertising Art contains 237 full-page plates plus an appendix with notes on the plates. Everything in this volume is entirely free of copyright and may be reproduced without permission or fee. It is ideal for advertising agencies whilst all commercial artists will find it to be a valuable picture source book. Printers and designers will also find it useful. The book concludes with a bibliography and detailed index.