Printer's Menu Designs
- SIGNED Wraps. String -- stab binding
- Chicago: The Ward Advertising Service Inc, 1914
Chicago: The Ward Advertising Service Inc, 1914. Wraps. String -- stab binding. Very Good. Fourteen menu (and wine list) designs, each on heavy card, with a variety of decorative vignette headpieces that capture mainstream American taste of the early 20th century. The illustrations might depict livestock, an elegant table setting, elegant diners, a bucolic panorama. Art Nouveau flourishes come to play in a few. 4to.-sized, 24 by 14 cm, stab bound with two holes and string. Light brown card wraps. Only first specimen contains printed dinner menu. Others, beneath the decorative rectangle on top, are generally blank until the bottom, when gives printer's or designer's name. Twelfth card has message in middle about printing, stating cards are on 3-ply translucent Bristol and twelve of these cards are printed per sheet. The cards are each printed in a single color -- blue, green, brick or peach -- with the color more often than not matching the color of the card onto which the color is printed. Wraps with light to moderate wear. Tears by holes of stab binding, and also along spine fold. Lower binding string present but no longer running all the way to front. A few of the Sample specimens have a hint, and very light hint, of perhaps dampstaining, along a thin sliver of their base. Essentially, though, the cards are clean and remain strong.