DESCRIPTION: Scarce unattributed pictorial map of the metropolitan Oakland, California. Likely dates to circa 1940 based on the aircraft style in one of the photographic vignettes and the fact that the Oakland Bay Bridge, built 1936, appears on the map. Unsigned and undated.
The illustration and quotation on this trade card were not unique to John Cosgrove but rather part of a stock design widely used by 19th-century printers who specialized in producing humorous or sentimental advertising cards. Lithographers commonly kept catalogs of ready-made comic scenes—like this seaside mother-and-child vignette with the line “It’s a wise child that knows its own mother at the sea side”—which merchants could customize by adding their own business imprint below. In this case, the printer simply inserted Cosgrove’s name, trade description, and Poydras Market address into the blank advertising panel at the bottom, allowing a small New Orleans fish dealer to benefit from professionally printed imagery at a fraction of the cost of commissioning original artwork.
PUBLICATION DATE: 1940
GEOGRAPHIC AREA: United States
BODY OF WATER: Oakland Bay
CONDITION: Good.
Clean and intact.
COLORING: Process color.
ENGRAVER:
SIZE: 18
" x
12 "
ITEM PHYSICAL LOCATION: 89
PRICE: $300
ADD TO CART
|