Before the era of mass media advertising, business people got their points across by means of a rich variety of engraved announcements. These cleverly drawn illustrations — with areas left blank for inserting messages — are as popular with graphic designers today as they were generations ago. For this treasury of antique attention-getters, the author has selected 295 royalty-free mortised cuts from the 19th-century publications. Included are an impressive array of banners and scrolls, signboards, street vendors, dapper gentlemen and demure damsels, wagons, railroad cars, hot-air balloons, animals, dancers, barrels, books, bouquets, and more. Commercial artists and designers will find this inexpensive collection an ideal way to add antique charm to advertisements and many other graphic projects.
