To the desks of U.S. admen last week went a 48-page, limited-edition booklet* tracing the foundation of a now flamboyant art: illustration of advertisements with eye-catching photos and drawings.
Pictures were used in the 1700s for the same reason that they are used today: to catch the eye of the reader and lure him into reading the ad. At first their use was infrequent, because they were too expensive. But in the early 1800s one Abel Bowen, engraver, produced a batch of stock woodcuts, laid them out for cheap sale to magazines, newspapers, etc.
His pictures (and those of imitators) were charmingly naive...
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