Trade Signs: The Eyes Have It

“They look out of no face, but, instead, from a pair of enormous yellow spectacles which pass over a nonexistent nose.”

“They,” of course, are the all-seeing eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg, Fitzgerald’s fictional oculist from The Great Gatsby, whose weathered billboard gazed unblinking, over the “valley of ashes” (borough of Queens) and all who traveled between Long Island and Manhattan.

Perhaps I will eventually post the barber’s giant straight-razor advertising tonsorial services, or the dentist’s enormous tooth, but right now these disembodied eyes in their many incarnations are getting a post of their own.

(Images are from auction sites unless noted. TOP)

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Firecracker Boards

I was going to save this for July 4th, but I just couldn't wait. Later this week, Morphy Auctions of Pennsylvania will be offering over 1,300 lots of pyrotechniana from the collection of George Moyer. You may have read about his five decades of collecting all things firecracker-related in the New York Times, a couple of weeks ago. The labels, of course, are endlessly fascinating for their iconography and design, but for me the gems are the salesman's sample boards. The careful arrays of sparklers, roman candles, rockets, pinwheels, cones, etc., all seem to hint at the spectacular displays awaiting the user.

You can see all 19 of them, and slightly larger images of the ones I’ve posted, here.

Shop till you ...

Herbert Matter’s "Surreal Shopper" appeared in a 1939 Harper's Bazaar cautioning shopper's not to lose their heads to fashion. (Via bits&bites, via The Eclectic Eye)

Face it; nothing says President’s Day like a good sale. It used to be that Washington’s Birthday was when stores made final markdowns on Winter’s leftovers, in order to make room for the Spring line. Alas, the holiday is now called President’s Day, Winter merchandise went on sale before Christmas, and gauzy florals have been hanging in stores for at least a month or two. And even though, the mere act of shopping, in itself, is downright American, gone is that reverential moment of handing over presidential portraits in exchange for our purchases. Somehow, swiping a credit card just doesn’t make me think of George.


Lacoste windows, Rockefeller center, the first week of January.