Judge, 1914-08-22 · page 11 of 24
Judge — August 22, 1914 — page 11: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page documents a collecting trend spreading from Europe to America: miniature poster stamps featuring artwork by prominent artists. The text explains that European stationers' windows display colorful stamps so affordable that mass collecting is becoming viable—potentially rivaling picture postcard collecting. The twelve stamps shown reproduce artwork that previously appeared in *Judge* magazine covers and illustrations, including identifiable titles like "A Man of Affairs," "A Mug for Milk," "Horse Show," "April Showers," "The Swimming Lesson," and "Glad Rags." The satire appears gentle: the piece celebrates European sophistication while predicting Americans will enthusiastically embrace this new fad. The joke seems to be on American consumers' susceptibility to European trends and the commercialization of art into collectible trinkets—turning serious artistic work into cheap, mass-produced novelties for stamp collectors.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
A MAN °F AFFAIRS A MUG | FOR MILK. POSTER STAMPS THE EUROPEAN CRAZE EUROPE is poster-stamp mad. ‘The fad has just started here. Over artists in Europe are not above designing a poster, and their works are in Germany the shop windows of stationers are enriched b: isp) now being reproduced on the stamps in miniature, This will surely be of vari-colored stamps, and England is sitting up with keen interest. the case in America, and the beauty of the stamps will inspire col- The stamps are so cheap that nearly any one afford them. dit will lectors to assemble them without reference to their business utility. b juestion of months when commercial stamp collecting will be- Admirers of the covers and color pictures that have adorned JupGE ‘ad that will outrival the eraze for picture post cards. The will recognize reproductions of several in the above stamps. comicbooks.com