Fine Arts: The power of advertising in all its old glory
Sheppards’ upcoming sale is a feast of vintage marketing, from Guinness to Bovril
What’s Bovril? A Zippo? A public telephone? Why would you want to buy ink? I can hear younger readers asking all these things. Vintage advertisements throw light on all manner of items that were once part and parcel of everyday life.
The ancient Egyptians, Romans, Greeks and Chinese all used advertising, but not until the arrival of newspapers did it begin its meteoric rise in the West. Sheppard’s sale offers a fine selection of 19th ...