Trophy

What is this marvelous thing? It's from the 1928-29 catalog of the New York School of Fine and Applied Art (soon to be renamed Parsons School of Design). A caption explains: Poster design advertising hardware implements. The design is based on Research study of 17th Century historic trophy panels and rendered in the modern manner. Who is this advertisement for? Were there ever folks conversant with 17th century trophy panels and modern art movements (like Dynamic Symmetry) and able to connect them to the pleasures of tool ownership? For Frank Alvah Parsons, advertising, like everything else, should be artful - responding to and cultivating the appreciation of beauty and sense of inner harmony which a full life and engaged citizenship required. Golly!