Life, 1927-08-25 · page 36 of 36
Life — August 25, 1927 — page 36: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a **Marmon automobile advertisement**, not political satire. It's promoting the Marmon car company's new "jewel colors" paint options (Series 75). The ad poses a rhetorical question to designers: where should automotive colors come from? The answer: nature—specifically gemstones and precious stones. Marmon claims to have developed paint colors inspired by emeralds, rubies, and other gems, matching Nature's own color harmonies and proportions. The two car illustrations show elegantly dressed 1920s-era figures admiring Marmon vehicles, emphasizing luxury and sophistication. The overall message positions Marmon automobiles as artistic objects worthy of the same color consideration as fine jewelry or cathedral windows. This reflects early-20th-century marketing that framed cars as status symbols and aesthetic achievements, not merely transportation.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Life —\ au A > from these a series of beautiful and appropriate oS Set eg - jewel colors has been developed. Not only the \ \ harmonies, but the proportionings and stripings, are analogous with those used by Nature itself in ‘ _(ewel colors Seotiversefidhfiestioe 4. Mtsoontel “What colors,’? Marmon, designers individualized coloring in the soundest of taste asked themselvés,‘are most suitable for making an art of the painting | 4 directly inspired by ofa motorcar? Can yousuccessfully — | ‘ - hich shoves subdued take your color note from a tapestry or a cathedral window or an objet dart, from a flower or a bird?” -{- It was nothing short of inspiration which prompted Marmon to seck out sources where Nature works upon hard sur- Jaces. Experimentation led into the fascinating realm of precious and semi-precious stones, and comicbooks.com |