Lot 33: Boston Illustrated/The Best Guide to Boston. 1895.

Boston Illustrated/The Best Guide to Boston. 1895.Reed, a native of Massachusetts, was a prolific book illustrator and cartoonist from the age of eighteen, and the author of some of the best American posters produced between 1895 and 1900. She then apparently married and left to live in England, regrettably disappearing from the poster scene. This advertisement for the "Best Guide to Boston," featuring some of the fairest attractions that the "Athens of America" has to offer, was the most expensive of her posters sold by Smith and Mecane in 1896, presented to the public for the exorbitant price of thirty-five cents. "In August 1895, Reed's design appeared in altered form, welcoming the triennial enclave of the Knights Templar. A knight on horseback replaced Reed's fashionably dressed young lady; the background of State House dome and Common trees remained the same" (Lauder, p. 164).
ETHEL REED (1876-?)

11 1/2 x 18 1/2 in./28.5 x 47 cm

1895.0

A-/ Slight stains at edges.