The inspiration for the 1970s children’s classic, “The Little Penguin Who Hated Science”.
Thanks to this display at an auction, I now know that influenza/flu used to be known as the grippe.
I stayed out of the bidding on a few auction items I wanted, but eventually managed to land this sweet Aultman & Taylor thresher advertising poster as my 2nd and last North Star auction win of the day. It has a pretty savage old-timey insult on their competition I liked, calling them “superior to the flail and an improvement on the devices of ancient Egypt.” It wasn’t until I got it home that I saw a label on the back from the Art Conservation Resource Center — Somebody paid to have this poster restored and preserved back in 1988. Interesting. Further digging found a similar but not exact version of this poster selling for $1,300, and another similar poster with an auction estimate range of $3,000-$6,000. A third one sold in 2012 for $950. The ones I found online have a big “The Aultman-Taylor Thresher and Mounted Horse Power for sale by” underneath the illustration, and mine has a tiny “Chas. Shober & Co., Prop’s Chicago Lith’g Co.” down there. No year listed online or anywhere on the print, and I’m not sure if a restored piece is worth more or less or why mine is different from the ones I found online, but this is still all kinds of neat. Hooray for auctions!
(And if any of you have any clue as to the approximate year this was made, please share!)
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I am pleased to say I went home with the true jewel of the auction.
Not the most elegant of euphemisms, but effective nonetheless.
The Fifties were a dark time, especially since they hadn’t yet figured out the recipe for Coca-Cola-glazed turkey.
1959 two-page Coca-Cola / Coke Thanksgiving magazine ad
“Grandma, did you forget to make the damned potatoes again?”
As I trudged through this rambling, convoluted bit of century-old writing, I started to hear it in the voice of Mojo Jojo (Roger L. Jackson) from The Powerpuff Girls and it suddenly became much, much better.
Pierce-Arrow Motor Car Company ad found on the back cover of a 1917 Life magazine.
It still doesn’t explain the blacksmith though.
“Umm… Excuse me, but why am I even in this ad?”
Collier’s magazine — December 13, 1952
Image: Scan of one of my latest vintage mag acquisitions. Cover illustration by C. William Randall.
