Life, 1920-04-01 · page 43 of 60
Life — April 1, 1920 — page 43: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
The page from *Life* magazine features a full-page ad for W. & J. Sloane, a New York furniture company. The illustration shows bedroom furniture (a chair, dresser with mirror, and side table with lamp) arranged as a display. The "satire" is rhetorical rather than visual: the ad's headline plays on irony by claiming to "upset traditions of price" while "upholding traditions of quality." The copy argues that quality and affordability aren't mutually exclusive—that Sloane offers good design and construction at "reasonably low" prices with "unreasonably long" service. This appears to be early-to-mid 20th century advertising that uses clever wordplay to position the brand as breaking the convention that quality furniture must be expensive. There are no political references or caricatures—just commercial persuasion dressed in witty language.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
HOME AND PORCH FURNITURE Upholding Traditions of Quality Upsetling Traditions of Price ® eel is the greatest furniture tradition of the past. High prices are the greatest tradition of the present. The aim in Sloane Furniture is to uphold the first and to upset the second. It is possible to have quality without economy. _ It is impossible to have economy without quality. There is no saving where there is no service, but there is double satisfaction where the prices are reasonably low and the service is un- reasonably long. That is the keynote of Sloane Furniture for dining room, bedroom, or porch, en suite or in single pieces. Refined in design, sound in its construction, and priced as honestly as it is put together. W. & J. SLOANE A Interior Decorators Floor Coverings and Fabrics Furniture Makers " FIFTH AVENUE AND FORTY-SEVENTH STREET, NEW YORK comicbooks.com