Classic Cars of the 20th Century: 100 Years of Automotive Ads, 1900-1999
Henry Ford jump-started the age of the automobile with the first assembly-line car in 1908: the Model T. For the next one hundred years, the automobile would evolve from chugging workhorse to tailfin-era showboat to sleek status symbol, stamped with a Mercedes Benz hood ornament. Once a novel invention of wonder, the car of the Postwar Era grew into a necessity of the modern age, a key to the freedom promised by the open road. So various were the choices of colors and features offered to America
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(out of 6 reviews)
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Review by J. Cherry for Classic Cars of the 20th Century: 100 Years of Automotive Ads, 1900-1999
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There's been several collections of car ads published in book form through the years but Taschen's 20th Century Classic Cars establishes a new standard for the genre. This is so inclusive, it's the only one you'll need. It includes well-written essays and a clever time line to put things in perspective.
Exhaustive, lavish, and well-designed, this is one volume any car buff, ad junkie or pop culture fan will want in their library.
Published to usual world-class Taschen standards, it would make an ideal gift. Only one word of warning, don't open it unless you're prepared to lose a few hours, it's difficult to put down.
Review by Robin Benson for Classic Cars of the 20th Century: 100 Years of Automotive Ads, 1900-1999
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If you have Taschen's All-American Ads series you'll probably have all these ads in the various editions. I did a quick check on three of them compared with this book. Here the forties has 36 compared to 110 in the Ads book; fifties has 44 compared to 200 and the sixties with 54 compared to 267. Of course if you don't have the All-American Ads series and want to see just over four hundred auto ads presented in a beautifully designed book then Classic Cars is for you and I think it's way ahead of any similar books.
Each of the ten decades starts with a few hundred words intro and an interesting timeline across the bottom of each page to point out the significant industry developments then the pages feature the ads either one to a spread, or page or two on a page. Fortunately none of them are too small to prevent you reading the amazing copy that writers toiled long hours over. As well as great photos, or art in the early decades, I thought that reading some of this over-the-top copy was one of charms of the book. How about this Olds ad from 1952:
'You've got to drive it to believe it! Never before has Oldsmobile had such an exciting performance story to tell! For here is a NEW kind of "Rocket" Engine car - dramatically new with the flashing 160-hp. "Rocket"...now paired with smooth new Hydra-Matic Super Drive'. There's page after page of this stuff.
The book's production is quite impressive. The ads have generous margins on the page and captions that provide some background material about the cars. All the ads have been scanned from printed originals yet there is no screen clash and with matt art paper and a three hundred screen these ads are about as prefect as you'll get.
A wonderful, colorful look at American wheels.
***SEE SOME INSIDE PAGES by clicking 'customer images' under the cover.
Review by maryfd for Classic Cars of the 20th Century: 100 Years of Automotive Ads, 1900-1999
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Beautiful book! Everything and more! Service was excellent! Thank you ever so!
Review by Ricko for Classic Cars of the 20th Century: 100 Years of Automotive Ads, 1900-1999
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At first glance this is a fine collection of automotive advertisements. However, the grainy reproductions and odd selection of car models left me a little disappointed. Too many mundane examples of boring cars! Where are the iconic designs (Raymond Loewy's 1953 Studebaker) and spectacular advertisements (Van Cleef Jewels and Cadillacs)? Text is ok, and generally a good effort, but certainly nothing special about the illustrations.
Review by John Matlock for Classic Cars of the 20th Century: 100 Years of Automotive Ads, 1900-1999
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With as many ads as we see every day (estimated to be 50,000) it is a bit surprising to find a book that consists almost solely of ad reprints. But once you see it, you can understand why it was published.
Advertising reflects some of the best art, writing, photography, innovativeness, and creativity that exists. On the one hand this is a book that brings out your nostalgia feelings. On a more serious note here is an excellent commentary on the times. Here you see what attracted attention in the past decades. Here you see how design trends began with the automotive stylists and then led to other products, there's the rounded shapes of the 40's leading to the straight lines of the 50's. There's the first tail fins (Cadillac, copied from the tail fins of the P-38 airplane). And then how they got carried to extremes.
This is a high quality coffee table book that is likely to have the men visiting your home picking it up and wanting to look at it for a long time.