Coastal Living Supports Decorating with Vintage Ads

My sister-in-law loves everything to do with the beach and island life. So no surprise that she subscribes to Coastal Living. In the latest issues there is an article by Susan Stiles Dowell titled Treasure Hunt.

In the article she polled experts from TV's Antiques Roadshow to learn their recommendations for beach house decor.

One of the recommendations is Vintage Ads and illustrations with a nautical theme expecially the old luxury liner ads! Well I cannot agree more!

Here is a 1906 Southern Pacific ad showing the steamship Monus. This is from the magazine Country Life in America.




Hamburg American Cruises were very popular in the early 1900's and usually had an exotic theme. This ad from 1909 invites travel to South America and the West Indies. Note the camel in the upper right hand corner.

Here you see a couple being told a great story by their guide. Lovely colors and a real sense of adventure here.



You may not want to go the early 1900s but instead incorporate art deco nautical ads from the 1920's. Or the lovely photo ads popular by the cruise ships in the 1930s


Black and white ads can be more dramatic for decorating especially when you are using accents in the room which are the pop of color.


You don't want the vintage advertising competing.
Find wonderful vintage cruise ads at The Old Ad Store

Fairies, Imps and Elves in Vintage Advertising

Many old ads featured little fairies, imps, and elves. Some were funny and many were beautiful or whimsical. You can find these ads at The Old Ad Store

Here is a very pretty ad for Fairy soap with Fairies riding bumblebees from a November 1899 Harper's magazine.

The ad reads: The Fairies bring their choicest gift.

Pears' had a similar themed ad in 1898 that has three winged babies bringing the soap. But are they angels, fairies or cupids?





Elves and brownies were used by illustrators to advertise
soap. Here is a cute ad from Punch magazine. Some of these would be very cute silk-screen on to hand towels don't you think?

I've gone to the Dogs!

It had to happen. My most unusual sale to date...decorating a dog house. Well, a "boarding bungalow". How much fun was it to find ads for this doggy day care? Lots. I got to visit the location, decide on brands and breeds and play with this dog.

Could your business use a little vintage advertising? Probably, and here is the place to fine it:
The Old Ad Store

Vintage Advertising: Ingersoll Watch

Ingersoll Dollar Watch

The saga of the Ingersoll dollar watch began with two farm boys from Michigan. Robert H Ingersoll and his brother Charles moved to New York City and found a small loft in Fulton St. There they began selling rubber type and other small things of their own invention. According to company history, Robert saw a small clock hanging on the wall of an office he visited. As he stared at the clock he saw a vision. He thought if he could reduce the size of the works, he could fit it into a watch case and sell it a small price, filling a universal need.

He worked on the model himself resulting in the first Ingersoll watch for sale in 1893. He believed his fortune was made when he completed the watch. He believed that there were hundreds of thousand of citizens in the US at that very moment that would be glad to pay a dollar for such a watch.

But how were the brother to reach these customers? They decided to place a small advertisement, the smallest that would be accepted in a magazine. The first day’s mail after that magazine had reached its reader brought them $1500 worth of orders. By 1914, 35 million watches had been sold.

And now another ad:

Find vintage watch ads at The Old Ad Store