“The letterhead is often regarded as the first proof of the actuality of a business entity. When those first gleaming reams of stationery and business cards arrive, one can truly proclaim himself in business. And when, conversely, a business fails, those same gleaming reams come home as scratch paper and an occasional melancholy reminder of fallen empires that might have been… This lively portfolio, containing 200 of the most colorful, unusual and expressive letterheads of the American industrial age, accompanied by historically interesting captions, provides a unique perspective on such industries as printing, tobacco, food, agriculture, pharmaceuticals and entertainment.”

Publisher: Chronicle
Paperback: 120 pages
Illustrated

If any single cocktail ever deserved its own art book, it’s the martini. It is a symbol of power, elegance, sophistication, nostalgia and civilization itself. All manner of writers have had things to say about the martini. Among those included in this book are: Dorothy Parker, Ogden Nash, Luis Buñuel, Robert Benchley, Noel Coward and Ian Fleming. Whether it appears in advertising illustrations, the world of fine art or as a motif in cinema, the martini is a sexy and nearly universal symbol of class. (The author’s father owned the El Matador bar in San Francisco, a swank place with a “who’s who” clientele which spawned its own history book. One ascertains that the author properly reveres his subject and knows something, firsthand, of the martini’s heyday.)
The book begins with various theories of the martini’s origin. There follows a brief history of gin and Prohibition. The martini’s role is explored in literature, politics and film. There follows an assessment of the relative popularity of the martini through the decades. Then, of course, comes the dissertation on mixing the perfect martini. The illustrations are lavish and copious. If one were unable to read and had to guess what this book was about, from the pictorial evidence one would surmise it described an elegant world full of beautiful silver-and-glass containers peopled by a very sophisticated race of impeccably dressed beings. Bottoms up! SA

Publisher: Chronicle
Hardback: 132 pages
Illustrated

Explores the aesthetic, historical and social influences on German and Austrian graphics between the wars—before Hitler’s heavy hand of kitsch descended on the design world. Posters, packaging, trademarks and more are strikingly arranged to showcase the commercial artist’s mastery of weight and severity (echoes of calligraphy and woodcuts), contrasted with muted color palettes, richly textured surfaces and (surprise) a German sense of character and humor. GR

Publisher: Chronicle
Paperback: 132 pages
Illustrated

How Vegas was built, from the Meadows Club in 1931, to the Flamingo in 1946, up to the Mirage in 1989. “In all those streamlined façades, in all those flamboyant entrances and deliberately bizarre decorative effects, those cheerfully self-assertive masses of color and light and movement that clash roughly with the old and traditional, there are certain underlining characteristics which suggest that we are confronted not by a debased and cheapened art, but a kind of folk art in mid 20th-century garb.” Or, as one wag puts it: “‘They begin to become art… or psychiatry.’” GR

Publisher: Chronicle
Paperback: 128 pages
Illustrated

Circus art as entertainment, chattering, luring and sizzling the dollars out of patrons’ pockets. “With its retina-searing colors, freak appeal and bombastic reconstructions of human and animal anatomy, the circus sideshow banner preyed on our inexhaustible curiosity to come face to face with the grotesque and the unimaginable.” Banners from the late 19th to the early 20th centuries include: “The Sword Swallower!” “The Alligator Man!” “Priscilla, the Monkey Girl!” “Woman Changing to Stone!” “Popeye!” “Iron Tongued Marvel! The Great Waldo!” (A talented “ingestor” from Germany, he could “gobble objects of unusual size, including lemons and mangos, which he then regurgitated on demand.”) An entirely different assortment of banners than presented in Freaks, Geeks, and Strange Girls. GR

Publisher: Chronicle
Paperback: 96 pages
Illustrated