Life — August 14, 1931 — page 1: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# Analysis This appears to be a Life magazine cover from August 14, 1919 (price 10¢). The illustration is credited to "ELY CULBERTSON on Contract Bridge" and depicts an antique shop scene with an "ANTIQUES BOUGHT & SOLD" sign. The cartoon likely satirizes the popularity of Contract Bridge, a newly fashionable card game in 1919. The joke appears to connect bridge-playing with accumulating antiques—possibly suggesting that bridge players are either wasting time collecting old items, or that the game itself was becoming as dated as antiques. The charming domestic scene with figures in the garden and shop setting provides the visual context for this social commentary on contemporary leisure habits and consumer culture among the American middle class.