I love the cover of this book so much that I spent most of a day cleaning up the scanned image. My copy has some tears and stains, but the worst was the brown foxing that covered the entire page. It can be tedious work, but it’s also sort of mesmerizing. While I was working on the image, I was watching a wonderful documentary, Tim’s Vermeer, where Tim painstakingly reproduces a Vermeer painting, which seemed sort of appropriate, although . . . Tim’s Vermeer – 4 years, Martha’s McCall’s Cover – 1 day. When my repair was done, I was so pleased to have restored this wonderful illustration — okay, not a Vermeer, but still pretty adorable.
There are two of these publications in my collection, and both are from 1928 — one is the Spring issue and one is Fall. Although only a few of the interior pages are colored, the Art Deco illustrations are all adorable. I’m always looking for the original patterns contained in these catalogs, but they are rare and difficult to find.
Smock-Top Pattern No. 1640 Has Points and Rambler-Roses
New Smock-Tops For Small and Bigger Girls
The Embroidery Way Smartens These Play Frocks
