Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Wehman Bros.' New Book Of Fun, Magic & Mystery. 1905




This wonderful catalogue/sampler for Wehman Bros. of New York is chock full of excerpts and ads for many of their joke books and parlor games and such.
I was particularly struck by the illustrations gracing their myriad books featured on the back cover. They remind me of some the ink work from american underground comix of the 60s but, of course, they date from at least 1905.
I've separated individual illustrations for a better look.
& please don't shoot the messenger regarding the blatant racism depicted on some of the covers and their wording.
Dutch jokes ?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the Wheman covers! They are a great telescope back in time.

Jack Ruttan said...

Sorry about this. You've been memed.

darwination said...

Excellent - wild little books. Thank you for the post!