Lot Details
Lot 247
TWAIN, MARK (SAMUEL LANGHORNE CLEMENS) Group of five framed advertising posters.
Circa 1900 or later. Each matted and framed. Comprising: 1 & 2) two color screen printed advertising pieces for Mark Twain Flour, Voigt Milling Co., Grand Rapids, Michigan, one quite large and is the largest item in the lot at 20 x 13 inches, the larger piece fine, the smaller with a few creases and printing flaws; 3) a half-tone broadside advertisement for Prince Albert Pipe and Cigarette Tobacco, R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, with a large full length depiction of Twain smoking a pipe and with the text "MARK TWAIN - One of the most beloved of American authors - was a great smoker and very fond of a pipe ... Sooner or later you will smoke a pipe." 13 1/2 x 9 1/2 inches, some toning to text area; 4) a colorful chromolithographed advertisement for "Mark Twain Cigars" with an image depicting Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer and with the text "MARK TWAIN/Known to Everyone - Liked by All." 6 1/2 x 6 1/2 inches; and 5) a 1913 color printed Cream of Wheat advertisement depicting Huck Finn, Tom Sawyer and Aunt Polly. No item examined out of frame.
By 1883, Samuel Clemens had trademarked the name Mark Twain and freely licensed the name, his image and characters for a wide array of products. Here Twain allows his name and visage to be used to advertise cigars, pipe tobacco, flour and Cream of Wheat. Famous and instantly recognizable, "Before his death, Mark Twain's face had reached the kind of currency our Presidents attain only after they die" (Mark Twain in the Movies, p. 13). These five pieces were sold as part of a larger group sold at Sotheby's New York, 2003, lot 150.
C
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