Life, 1913-09-11 · page 44 of 44
Life — September 11, 1913 — page 44: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is **not a cartoon or satire**—it's a straightforward **advertisement** from Life magazine (September 11, 1913) for the J.B. Williams Company's shaving and grooming products. The ad promotes their "Holder-Top Shaving Stick" and offers sample "Suit Case Sets" for 24 cents in stamps. These were trial-size collections of toiletries marketed separately to men and women, containing products like shaving cream, talc powder, dental cream, and soaps. The layout uses decorative Art Nouveau-style borders and product illustrations typical of early 20th-century advertising. The messaging emphasizes luxury and convenience—appealing to consumers curious about new personal care products. For modern readers: this reflects an era when companies marketed grooming items through mail-order samples, and when gendered product lines were explicitly marketed and packaged differently for men versus women.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
The economy and ease of using Williams’ Holder-Top Shaving Stick is exceeded only by the luxury and comfort it affords. SPECIAL OFFER—Suit Case Sets In order that those who are not familiar with our new toilet requisites may have an opportunity to try some of them, we have prepared very attractive sets of samples which we call ““Men’s Suit Case Sets” and “Women’s Suit Case Sets.” These are handsomely decorated boxes containing trial size reproductions of our regular packages. Either set named below will be sent for 24 cents in stamps. Men’s Suit Case Set Women’s Suit Case Set Contains rE Contains Holder-Top Shaving Stick 4 | Talc Powder Shaving Cream : Dental Cream Dental Cream f - Cold Cream Talc Powder 4 : Jersey Cream Jersey Cream ji Toilet Soap Toilet Soap AShaving Violet Toilet Water Address: } Same | a i Department A, The J. B. Williams 4 ea ini Glastonbury, Company Sine Conn, Williams Tale Powder comicbooks.com