[Gilt Metal Wall Plate] Souvenir of New York

1915. Nine different embossed vignettes of New York sites. N.d., but it could be no earlier than 1913 because one of the vignettes is of the Woolworth Building, completed that year, and it could be no later than 1927, when construction of the New York Central Building was begun, because the vignette of Grand Central would show the building if it had then existed. (We suppose this could have been issued after the construction began, but we find this prospect very dubious.) The sea traffic under the 59th Street or Queensboro Bridge, not to mention the river frontage along the East River in Long Island City, suggests an earlier date, as do the general aesthetic, which has not one iota of Art Deco, which would become the signature style of New York City souvenirs as soon as Art Deco took off. The decoration is much more nineteenth Century Aesthetic Movement in its sunflowers and floral band. The plate is not quite 18 cm in diameter.