Life, 1905-05-04 · page 47 of 48
Life — May 4, 1905 — page 47: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is **not satire or a political cartoon**—it's a straightforward automobile advertisement. The page is from *Life* magazine's advertising section, promoting the Decauville Car, a French-imported automobile sold in America by the Decauville Automobile Company. The illustration depicts a well-dressed couple in an early 1900s motorcar driving through what appears to be a European street scene, with pedestrians and architecture visible. The ad's pitch emphasizes the manufacturer's confidence through an "unlimited guarantee for 365 days," positioning reliability as a major selling point for prospective buyers—a significant concern when automobiles were relatively new and unproven technology. The references to the Selden Patent and New York locations reflect actual business details of early auto distribution. This is period advertising aimed at wealthy consumers who could afford imported vehicles.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
An Unlimited Guarantee—A Standard of Value. Can anything be more assuring to the prospective purchaser of an automobile than the unlimited guarantee of the agent ? So sure are we that the Decauville Car is a perfect piece of mechanism—the best that skilled engineers can produce—that we give our unlimited guarantee for 365 days. That shows the extent of our confidence. The perfect integrity of construction, the absolute reliability of service, and complete adaptability to the needs of every user are the qualities on which our unlimited guarantee is based. It is the guarantee plus its fulfillment that has created such universal confidence in “THAT DECAUVILLE CAR.” Full line of Decauville parts always on hand. DECAUVILLE AUTOMOBILE COMPANY Standard Automobile Company of New York. Sole American Agents. Licensed Importer under Selden Patent. Salesroom: 136 West 38th Street. Garage: 1684 Broadway. Boston Branch: 733 Boylston Street, Boston, Mass. Patented Nov. 5, 1904; June 23, 1903; May 12, 1903. comicbooks.com