Author: (NEW YORK -- Map). REBELE, Otto (artist)
Title: Guide to the Walter Whitehead Dinner Given by the Art Directors Club of New York at Janssen's Hofbrau Broadway and 30th Street, New York...
Description: New York, Advertising Agencies' Service Co, New Yorkn.y. Folio (13½" X 17", folds down to 3¼" X 8½"), housed in 8vo stiff green pictorial folder (cover title: "Map of New York"). Map very good, folder near fine. 1" edge tear near the center of the top edge, along one of the fold lines (neatly, archivally closed on verso); original, as-issued folds present but otherwise not weakened. This delightful, cartoonish map is printed in black on a thin, translucent onion-skin paper, and depicts a small area of Manhattan. Cartouche (in shape of a hip flask!) at lower right bears title cited above (along with "April 30th 7 P.M. / Make your reservations now / no tickets sold at the door"). Within this roughly-rectangular shaped decorative border runs the following (one line to each side): "FOR ITS ALWAYS FAIR WEATHER / WHEN GOOD FELLOWS GET TOGETHER / WITH A STEIN ON THE TABLE / AND A GOOD SONG RINGING CLEAR." Above this border, along the top edge, runs the caption in mock Colonial style: "Plates Respektfully & Mechanickally ENGRAV'D by Ye HAGOPIAN PHOTO ENGRAVING CO. Inc. Artisans of Greate SKILL, Expressly for Ye Occasion, and for ye PLEASURE of Master WHITEHEAD in Especiall." Below this border, along the bottom edge, runs another mock Colonial caption: "Printed & Bound with CARE by Ye Craftsmen yclept: Advertising Agencies' Service Co. And PRESENTED Gratis, albeit with GOOD GRACE, to Ye MOST WORSHIPPFULL Company of Ye ART Directors." The map itself shows the several block radius around the intersection of Broadway and 30th Street, with a number of buildings (Hofbrau, Lipsitz Bros. Cloaks & Suits, Daly's Theatre, John L's Place, etc.) depicted rather three-dimensionally. A Chinaman puffs a pipe atop a chop suey restaurant, a horse-drawn carriage rolls down a street, two cats face off atop a building and other bits of activity take place throughout. Commercial artist Walter Whitehead was born in 1874, and died in 1956, which helps date this undated piece -- presumably to later in his life, perhaps his retirement. The Art Directors Club was founded in 1920 "for the progress of art in advertising and industry" (according to their 1921 exhibition catalogue) and both Otto Rebele and Whitehead were among its founding members. About Rebele little is known. He was born around 1878 and was both commercial artist and book illustrator. This scarce and delicate map is a rare survivor, obviously printed in a small quantity for distribution to the membership of this specialized trade association. .

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