The Definitive Dwiggins no. 335—The Pageant of Color: Old Hampshire Bond

The Hampshire Paper Co. was established in South Hadley Falls, Massachusetts in 1866. Its signature paper was Old Hampshire Bond, first manufactured around 1889. [1] Off and on between 1912 and 1925 W.A. Dwiggins did promotional work for the company and its leading paper stock. The earliest instance occurred at the end of 1912 and the beginning of 1913 when he designed the cover of a booklet titled “Backing Up Your Salesman”. Instead of working directly with Hampshire Paper, he received the commission through The Heintzemann Press of Boston. [2] His contacts were George Heintzemann (1886–1966), who had taken over the business after his father’s death in 1909, and Brad Stephens (1878–1964) of Brad Stephens & Co. who was a half owner. [3] Even after The Heintzemann Press closed down in 1919 and George Heintzemann moved to New York to work for The Dexter Folding Co., Dwiggins continued to work with Stephens. The great majority of the work continued to be for paper companies with much of it appearing as inserts in Direct Advertising, a trade publication edited by Stephens. [4] Among that work was a series of inserts for Old Hampshire Bond that Dwiggins designed, illustrated, ornamented, and (sometimes) lettered between 1922 and 1925 called The Pageant of Color.

“A unique direct-mail advertising campaign has been inaugurated by the Hampshire Paper Company, of South Hadley Falls, Mass., which deserves signal success, for it is intended to tie up the idea of using Old Hampshire Bond with the printers direct and also with the printers’ customers.,” wrote The Printing Art in May 1922. It went on to describe the design of the direct-mail piece and the plans for the campaign:

The plan calls for the production of twelve monthly eight-page folders, printed in three colors and showing each month a different color of Old Hampshire Bond, and in conjunction with these folders the sending out of a series of handsome books dealing with the subject of better letters, their uses, etc., all of which is to be reinforced by strong trade-paper and national magazine advertising. The folders are to be delivered month by month to the printers, each of them bearing the printer’s imprint, and the printer in turn will mail them each month to the consumers on his list, just as he would a house organ. With each monthly package the printer will also receive a bulletin containing other information about the Hampshire product, which will help to keep interest in the scheme alive. It is a large and comprehensive campaign, and all who may be interested are requested to write to the Hampshire Paper Company. [5]

Each folder was inserted into an issue of Direct Advertising beginning with the third number of 1922 and concluding with the third number of 1925. There were thirteen designs, one for each of the colors of Old Hampshire Bond (OHB). They appeared in the following order: Goldenrod, Turquoise, Tuscan, Blue, Green, Pink, Cafe, Gray, White, Corn, Azure, Champagne, and Primrose. The inserts were single-folded sheets with an illustration on the front and a text on the inside recto. Most of the latter pages had a vignette or small decoration. (The backs were left blank to provide space for the imprint of the printers who redistributed the folders.) They were printed in three colors, with at least two of the colors being chosen to approximate other colors of the paper line. The intent was to “demonstrate the unusual harmony of Old Hampshire Bond colors.” [6] Dwiggins designed ten of the inserts, all but Green, White, and Primrose.

Although OHB was made in twelve shades of color as early as 1901, Hampshire Paper’s advertising stressed basic white prior to The Pageant of Color campaign. In fact, for several years the paper was promoted as “The Stationery of a Gentleman” and praised for its masculine qualities. [7] Perhaps the idea for The Pageant of Color series was sparked by Dwiggins’ experiments with color combinations for the cover of Direct Advertising.

Here are all thirteen of The Pageant of Color inserts in sequence, including the three not designed by Dwiggins. [8]

Cover of The Pageant of Color: Old Hampshire Bond Goldenrod insert in Direct Advertising vol. VIII, no. 3 (1922). Design, illustration, and lettering of title by W.A. Dwiggins.

Interior page of The Pageant of Color: Old Hampshire Bond Goldenrod insert in Direct Advertising vol. VIII, no. 3 (1922). Design, ornament, and title lettering by W.A. Dwiggins.

Goldenrod
For Goldenrod, the first color in the series, Dwiggins illustrated a pageant—defined in one manner as “a public entertainment consisting of a procession of people in elaborate, colorful costumes”—to reflect the advertising campaign’s theme. The procession has an unspecified Orientalist flavor with the tall fez-like hats worn by the men and the figure being borne on a palanquin in the middle. [9] The copy, in describing the twelve Old Hampshire Bond colors as possessing the quality of mellowness, emphasizes the Orientalist aspect of the illustration: “This ‘mellow’ quality of color is found in antique tapestries, in fine Eastern carpets and in old Oriental prints and paintings. In these it is produced by art and the tempering effect of time.”

The floral ornament above the advertising copy on the interior page has a folk art quality to it rather than an Orientalist one. Typical of Dwiggins’ aesthetic unpredictability, it is paired with a hand-drawn ornamented and shaded Fat Face. The border is composed of repeating spirals made with a wood stamp carved by Dwiggins.

Cover of The Pageant of Color: Old Hampshire Bond Turquoise insert in Direct Advertising vol. VIII, no. 4 (1922). Design and illustration by W.A. Dwiggins.

Interior page from The Pageant of Color: Old Hampshire Bond: Turquoise insert in Direct Advertising vol. VIII, no. 4 (1922). Design and ornament by W.A. Dwiggins.

Turquoise
The Pageant of Color series was a success from the outset. In August 1922, The Printing Art wrote:

Lawrence A. Dudley, the Advertising Manager of the Hampshire Paper Company, says that the Old Hampshire Bond advertising campaign has gone over with a bang. From past statistics an estimate was made on the probable number of pieces required each month. On this basis the first edition of circular No. I was printed. It required two more editions to fill the actual orders that came in, and now each monthly edition is more than twice that originally estimated. [10]

Dwiggins had already completed work on the second insert by the time Dudley delivered the good news about the first one. [11] His illustration for Turquoise continued the Orientalist theme with a dancer backed by two musicians. The scene might be from the Ottoman Empire as the dancer appears to be wearing a decorative Anatolian dress and the musicians may be playing Persian instruments, the drum-like tompak and oboe-like sorna (or zurna), respectively. Their headgear echoes that of the men in the Goldenrod procession. [12]

The ornament on the interior page is Dwiggins’ interpretation of a Tree of Life filtered through an Indo-Persian lens. The tree’s five leaves are in the form of boteh, a Zoroastrian symbol that became the Western paisley design. An ornamental tulip (with two more paisley designs) is at its top and an exotic bird (possibly a flycatcher) rests on a branch at the right. [13] This design, in only one color and minus the surrounding oval frame, reappears in the Pink insert; and another paisley interpretation is part of the White insert (see below for both).

Comp for The Pageant of Color: Old Hampshire Bond Tuscan. Watercolor by W.A. Dwiggins (1922 or 1923). Image courtesy of Special Collections, Boston Public Library. [Note: the image colors are inexact.]

Cover of The Pageant of Color: Old Hampshire Bond Tuscan insert in Direct Advertising vol. IX, no. 1 (1923). Design, illustration, and title lettering by W.A. Dwiggins.

Interior page of The Pageant of Color: Old Hampshire Bond Tuscan insert in Direct Advertising vol. IX, no. 1 (1923). Design and ornament by W.A. Dwiggins.

Tuscan
Watercolor comps exist for three of Dwiggins’ ten OHB inserts: Tuscan, Cafe, and Champagne. [14] The Tuscan and Cafe comps must have been made early in the campaign since both show processions, suggesting that Dwiggins had planned to create different types of pageants for each tint of paper. This one, a Roman procession, was eventually scrapped in favor an autumnal landscape. (Given the name of the paper, it is surprising that Dwiggins made no attempt to draw a Tuscan landscape of rolling hills dotted with rows of cypress trees.)

The decorative bush on the interior page has leaves made using the hand-carved wooden stamps Dwiggins was experimenting with in the early 1920s. The flowers also appear to be stamped. [15]

Cover of The Pageant of Color: Old Hampshire Bond Blue insert in Direct Advertising vol. IX, no. 2 (1923). Design, illustration, and title lettering by W.A. Dwiggins.

Interior page of The Pageant of Color: Old Hampshire Bond Blue insert in Direct Advertising vol. IX, no. 2 (1923). Design and ornament by W.A. Dwiggins.

Blue
With the Blue insert Dwiggins returned to an exotic theme, this time Mexico instead of the Orient. Note the sombrero, serape, and guitar. He has again suggested the festive aspect of the pageantry theme through musicians and dancers instead of depicting a procession.

The small floral element on the copy page was used by Dwiggins elsewhere.

Cover of The Pageant of Color: Old Hampshire Bond Green insert in Direct Advertising vol. IX, no. 3 (1923). Design, illustration, and title lettering unknown.

Green
The Green insert is not by Dwiggins. It is unsigned, but it may be the work of the Boston studio Herrick & Lufkin which contributed other paper company designs to issues of Direct Advertising in the 1920s. [16]

Cover of The Pageant of Color: Old Hampshire Bond insert in Direct Advertising vol. IX, no. 4 (1923). Design and illustration by W.A. Dwiggins.

Interior page of The Pageant of Color: Old Hampshire Bond Pink from Direct Advertising vol. IX, no. 4 (1923). Design and ornament by W.A. Dwiggins.

Pink
For the Pink insert Dwiggins depicted fishermen (or mussel harvesters) at dawn on the mud flats of Deer Island in Boston Harbor. [17] He reused his Tree of Life design from the Turquoise insert for the copy page. But of more interest than Dwiggins’ design efforts, is the advertising copy which reads:

The very name pink suggests something extreme or effeminate to many people. But there is nothing suggestive of pink teas or parlor Bolshevism about Pink Old Hamsphire Bond. Pink Old Hampshire Bond is a good, virile color, suitable for an attractive letterhead, or for an announcement or folder.

As a nation we are inclined to be a somber people. It would be a fine thing if we used more color, in our clothing as well as in our art and in our advertising. Why shouldn’t business men and printers use more more of the shades in the Old Hampshire Pageant of Color and thus do their part to make our correspondence more cheerful and interesting?

Pink teas were developed by women at the turn of the 20th century as a subversive way to gather and discuss various radical issues, including suffrage. “In the event of any possible, potential confrontations they were able to swiftly turn their conversations to polite discussions about non-controversial and somewhat tame issues, like complimenting one another’s hats, or calmly sipping tea or nibbling on tea sandwiches,” explains Etiquipedia. By the 1920s pink teas were considered tame by Progressive Era suffragettes who advocated more aggressive actions to call attention to women’s rights. [18]

Parlor Bolshevism was a term of contempt aimed at peaceable radicals by those in power. Herbert Croly, one of the co-founders of The New Republic, explained the difference in a 1921 essay entitled “Hope, History and H.G. Wells”:

A plain Bolshevik is theoretically a person who condemns the existing order as a hopelessly vicious institution which is sanctioned exclusively by force. A parlor Bolshevik differs from a plain Bolshevik in many respects but chiefly in his conviction of the impotence of violence as an agency of radical social amelioration. As he sees it, the altered society of the future, if it is really to improve upon the society of today, must not only seek an ultimate sanction of consent but must come into existence by virtue of consenting. [19]

These references in the text for Pink Old Hampshire Bond are a legacy of the Red Scare of 1919-1920.

Comp for The Pageant of Color: Old Hampshire Bond Cafe. Watercolor by W.A. Dwiggins (1924). Image courtesy of Special Collections, Boston Public Library. [Note: the image colors are inexact.]

Cover of The Pageant of Color: Old Hampshire Bond Cafe insert in Direct Advertising vol. X, no. 1 (1924). Design, illustration, and title lettering by W.A. Dwiggins.

Interior page of The Pageant of Color: Old Hampshire Bond Cafe insert in Direct Advertising vol. X, no. 1 (1924). Design and ornament by W.A. Dwiggins.

Cafe
Dwiggins’ comp for the Cafe insert was another depiction of a procession, this time of one in Asia. It was rejected in favor of four figures in a desert, given the color of the paper—or perhaps, given their bulky clothing, in mountain snow reflecting bright sunlight. Note the copy which opines that, “Some scientific authority has stated that there is really no such thing as color; that what we call color is simply an affect which is set up in the eye by differences in the rate of light vibration reflected from various objects or materials.” Thus, is this the Gobi Desert or the Himalayas?

The Cafe illustration, with its use of “paper as part of the picture,” is reminiscent of both Dwiggins’ three-color print “The Bega’s Summer Palace, Ageb” (1919) and his 1923 contribution to the Paper Is Part of the Picture series for Strathmore Paper Co. In the former, an early illustration for one of his Athalinthia stories, a baker’s dozen of men in heavy coats pause with a palanquin in the snow near a mountain city. The latter uses the white paper to suggest both snow and sand, with an illustration of a woman on a beach on the outside of the folder and one of adventurers at St. Moritz on the inside. [20]

The Orientalist vignette on the inside of the folder—a pagoda guarded by two black warriors—is, with the exception of the men, composed entirely of Dwiggins’ wooden stamp figures. It was reproduced in Transactions of The Society of Calligraphers Bulletin No. 2 (February 3, 1925). [21]

Cover of The Pageant of Color: Old Hampshire Bond Gray insert in Direct Advertising vol. X, no. 2 (1924). Design, illustration, and title lettering by W.A. Dwiggins.

Interior page of The Pageant of Color: Old Hampshire Bond Gray insert in Direct Advertising vol. X, no. 2 (1924). Design and illustration by W.A. Dwiggins.

Gray
The Gray insert continues the Orientalist leitmotif with two Japanese archers, one on the cover and a smaller one inside. Archers were a favorite theme with Dwiggins. See The Definitive Dwiggins no. 33 for more on this subject.

The advertising text is a fantastic mash-up of real and imaginary places and people.

“When Gallitan III went to Jassica he had a villa built close by the river Nance for his bride. Day after day he sat in the garden under an olive tree instructing his decorators. He had the wall all about and running back to the river painted gray. He had the house painted gray, a soft, mellow gray like the gray of a Japanese water jug. The shutters he had blue with a rim of watery red around the window frames.”

Despite the quotation marks, it is not an excerpt from any ancient European or Asian tale. There is even a possibility that it may have been written by Dwiggins himself as part of his nascent Athalinthia stories. [22]

Cover of The Pageant of Color: Old Hampshire Bond White insert in Direct Advertising vol. X, no. 3 (1924). Photograph by Paul E. Vernon. Color manipulated by Hampshire Paper staff.

Detail of ornament from interior page of The Pageant of Color: Old Hampshire Bond White insert in Direct Advertising vol. X, no. 3 (1924). Ornament by W.A. Dwiggins.

White
The White insert is not only one of the three not designed by Dwiggins, but it is the only one to use a photograph instead of an illustration on the cover. The North African scene by Paul E. Vernon (1870–1957), a former paper merchant turned photographer, is probably from his self-published book Motoring in North Africa (1924). The exotic locale fits the recurrent theme of The Pageant of Color campaign. [23] Vernon’s photograph was manipulated with the addition of three colors, giving it the appearance of an illustration. (Note the scarab at the top of the border surrounding the photograph.)

The paisley ornament on the inside is composed partly with wooden stamp elements. [24] Dwiggins reused it from The Fabulist no. 3 (Autumn 1921) where it served as the headpiece to an untitled poem by John French Wilson (1886–1946). [25] It anticipated the fantastical paisley leaf (“Type ornament with landscape attached”) he fashioned for his game of quatrains with William Rose Benét in 1927 that were subsequently reproduced in the type specimen Emblems and Electra (1935).

Paisley seems to have been all the rage at the time that Dwiggins was working on The Pageant of Color series. In 1923 George E. Prue created a window display for the department store Jordan Marsh Co. of paisley jacquette, Persian paisley shawl and Persian ribbons and rugs. The following year Alice and Bettina Jackson wrote about paisley shawls, inspired by an experience seeing one in 1918 in a store on Boylston Street. Cheney Brothers advertised paisley ties as “new smart designs.” [26] But Dwiggins’ interest in paisley may have been sparked years before when he was designing advertisements for the Paine Furniture Co. in Boston, a number of which involved Persian rugs.

Cover of The Pageant of Color: Old Hampshire Bond Corn insert in Direct Advertising vol. X, no. 4 (1924). Design and illustration by W.A. Dwiggins.

Interior page of The Pageant of Color: Old Hampshire Bond Corn insert in Direct Advertising vol. X, no. 4 (1924). Design and ornament by W.A. Dwiggins.

Corn
The airfield that Dwiggins depicted for the Corn insert is probably the original Boston Airport which opened in 1923. It was built on tidal flats by the United States Corps of Engineers on the site of the present Logan International Airport. [27] The biplane in the foreground looks like a Waco Model 9 (1925) based on the structure of its struts. The illustration is one of only two in The Pageant of Color that acknowledges the modern world. Ironically, the copy emphasizes the conservative nature of the color, quoting a letter from an advertising manager: “Corn was our idea of a rich and ‘conservative’ color in bond paper.”

The decorative bush on the inside of the insert was created, like the one for Tuscan, using Dwiggins’ wooden stamp elements. [28] He recycled it from The Fabulist no. 3 (Autumn 1921) where it served as the tailpiece to the poem by John French Wilson mentioned earlier.

Cover of The Pageant of Color: Old Hampshire Bond Azure insert in Direct Advertising vol. XI, no. 1 (1925). Design and illustration by W.A. Dwiggins.

Interior page of The Pageant of Color: Old Hampshire Bond Azure insert in Direct Advertising vol. XI, no. 1 (1925). Design and cartouche by W.A. Dwiggins.

Azure
The woman on the front of the Azure insert is wearing a palla, indicating that she is Roman. But her pileus cap with its decorations and feather seems to be the product of Dwiggins’ imgination. The domestic Roman setting is reinforced by the presence of topiary in planters embellished with bucrania (bovine skulls with swags). However, the colors—of the paper and inks—are tame compared to vibrant ones the Ancient Romans preferred. [29] The Azure color is described as “Hardly a blue; white tinged with a pearly cool color; the milky hue in the mysterious color of opals; a milk drop stirred into water….”

The imitation of an Assyrian cartouche on the inside page is another example of Dwiggins’ fascination with archers. It is also another instance of Orientalism in the campaign. Instead of clashing with the Roman scene on the cover, the Assyrian cartouche simply reinforced the hazy idea of the Ancient world for the Hampshire paper customer.

Watercolor and pen-and-ink comp for cover of The Pageant of Color: Old Hampshire Bond Champagne insert (1925). Design, illustration, and lettering by W.A. Dwiggins. Image courtesy of Special Collections, Boston Public Library.

Cover of The Pageant of Color: Old Hampshire Bond Champagne insert in Direct Advertising vol. XI, no. 2 (1925). Design, illustration, and title lettering by W.A. Dwiggins.

Interior page of The Pageant of Color: Old Hampshire Bond Champagne insert in Direct Advertising vol. XI, no. 2 (1925). Design and ornament by W.A. Dwiggins.

Champagne
The third comp that survives is for the Champagne insert and it differs from the other two in that it closely resembles the final illustration. The image is a tongue-in-cheek Dwiggins riff on the chinoiserie of Jean-Baptiste Pillement (1728–1808) and the Jazz Age. A modern motor car (possibly a 1924 Willys Knight Six), two cloche-hatted flappers, and their chauffeur have been plunked down in an Orientalist landscape. The seated fisherman, a common figure in the work of Pillement, provides a rural contrast to the touring urbanites. [30]

There are a number of differences between the comp and the final print. The number of colors has been reduced from five to three to accommodate the constraints of printing. Pink and green are gone, and the blue has been toned down, giving the insert version a less vibrant feeling. The foliage is simpler (e.g. see the tree at upper left) and with removal of pink the flowers have have become invisible. The absence of pink also pushes the car and chauffeur into the background, making the two women the focal point of the illustration. (Also, the rear right fender of the car has disappeared.) Finally, Dwiggins has changed the perspective of the title cartouche and its lettering; and shifted his signature from right to left.

“Each shade has a color quality that you will be unable to find elsewhere except in antique tapestries, fine Eastern carpets, and old Oriental prints and paintings,” explains the text. The flowered branch—another swipe from Pillement (see below)—that accompanies the copy reinforces this sensibility. [31]

Detail (rotated) from Fleurs, Oiseaux, et Fantasies par Jean Pillement (Paris: H. Ernst, Editeur, 1924), Planche 38.

Cover of The Pageant of Color: Old Hampshire Bond Primrose insert in Direct Advertising vol. XI, no. 3 (1925). Illustrator unknown.

Primrose
The final shade of Old Hampshire Bond to be exhibited was Primrose. The design was done by someone other than Dwiggins, though I have been unable to discover who since the signature is heavily obscured. The illustration—possibly a woodcut—of a young woman in a field of flowers is one of the most appealing in the entire series. It is certainly the richest visually with multiple colors achieved via tints and surprinting.

It is surprising that Dwiggins did not design all of the inserts save the one for White. With the latter Hampshire Paper clearly took advantage of the publication of Vernon’s North African photographs and their prior relationship with him to demonstrate that their bond paper could handle photography. But why did others design the green and Primrose inserts? The most plausible explanation is that Dwiggins was not available, that he was burdened with too many other jobs. Certainly his work for S.D. Warren Co., another paper company, increased greatly during the years 1922 to 1925. [32] It is also possible that the adult onset diabetes Dwiggins developed in 1922/1923 rendered him unable to work for short stretches of time. [33]

It is unfortunate that we have no opportunity to see how Dwiggins might have imagined the Green and Primrose shades of paper. As it is, the ten inserts that he did do for The Pageant of Color still manage to show off his breadth of skills as an illustrator, ornamentalist, letterer, and typographer. [34] Furthermore, they are another example of his remarkable ability to handle color and a window into the diverse influences that animated his work. In sum, The Pageant of Color is among the most important works that Dwiggins did during his career as an advertising designer, ranking with the contemporary work he did for Warren. [35]

Notes
1. The South Hadley 250th Anniversary Book, 1753–2003 by Irene Cronin (East Longmeadow, Massachusetts: Tiger Press, 2003), p. 47: “About 1864, the Glasgow Co…built a mill that produced paper of excellent quality… (that) in April 1866…was sold to Edward, Wells, and John Southworth, previous stockholders in the Glasgow Co., who organized the Hampshire Paper Co.” The company closed in 1935, but Old Hampshire Bond continued to be made by the neighboring Carew Manufacturing Co., using some of Hampshire Paper Co.’s facilities. The earliest reference to Old Hampshire Bond is in The American Stationer vol. XXVI, no. 4 (July 25, 1889), p. 189. Lockwood’s Directory of the Paper and Stationery Trades for 1887–8 (New York: Howard Lockwood & Co., 1887), p. 56 lists the offerings of the Hampshire Paper Co. as “writing and bristol board”.
2. See the account book entries for 19 December 1912 and 28 January 1913 in Folder 2, Box 81(1), 1974 W.A. Dwiggins Collection, Boston Public Library. At the same time Dwiggins designed the cover for (and contributed lettering to) another Old Hampshire Bond promotional booklet called “Personality in Sales Letters.” This job came to him via The Stetson Press of Boston. See his invoices for 19 January 1913 and 21 January 1913 in Folder 6, Box 81(1), 1974 W.A. Dwiggins Collection, Boston Public Library.
3. Brad Stephens to Ray Nash 11 February 1946:  “I was a half owner of the Press from 1910 up to the time I dissolved the business in 1918 or 1919.” See Box 14, Ray Nash Papers (UP 102), Rauner Special Collections Archive, Dartmouth College. The triangular relationship that Dwiggins had with Stephens, and Heintzemann was a crucial part of his commercial design work from 1912 to 1919. It is inadequately discussed in W.A. Dwiggins: A Life in Design by Bruce Kennett (San Francisco: Letterform Archive, 2018), p. 76.
4. See The Definitive Dwiggins no. 328 for a survey of the covers Dwiggins designed for Direct Advertising between 1919 and 1928.
5. The Printing Art vol. XXXIX, no. 3 May 1922, p. 277.
6. From “The Pageant of Color: Goldenrod Old Hampshire Bond” insert in Direct Advertising vol. VIII, no. 3 (1922). “This folder demonstrates the unusual harmony of Old Hampshire Bond colors. To show this harmony we have printed on one color of paper two inks that approximately match two other colors in which Old Hampshire Bond is made. For example, we print on Old Hampshire Bond Goldenrod two other Old Hampshire colors‚ Old Hampshire Bond Green and Old Hampshire Bond Tuscan.” (The third color was dark blue.) The idea of color harmony does not seem to have been strictly adhered to for all of the inserts—especially not white—but it was applied often enough that the series does hold together visually. The ink combinations for the other papers are: dark green, flame red, and blue on Turquoise; yellow green, soft blue, and terracotta on Tuscan; dark green, indigo, and black on blue; tuscan, blue, and lavender on Green; green, brick red, and blue on Pink; green, tuscan, and dark blue on Cafe; turquoise, tuscan, and black on Gray; pink, green, and black on Corn; turquoise, green, and violet on Azure; turquoise, corn, and black on Champagne; and turquoise, green, and tuscan (with tints and surprinting) on Primrose. What is notable is how sparingly black is used.
7. The earliest mention of Old Hampshire Bond colors is in an advertisement in System: The Magazine of Business vol. I, no. 1 (December 1901), inside front cover. By 1905 Hampshire Paper Co. advertisements claim there are fourteen colors plus white. Sometime after 1912 two colors were dropped.
8. Eight of the inserts are shown (two as roughs and six as printed) in W.A. Dwiggins: A Life in Design by Bruce Kennett (San Francisco: Letterform Archive, 2018), pp. 148 and 170. Kennett incorrectly says that Dwiggins “produced a dozen of these” and incorrectly gives the dates for Goldenrod as 1921, Tuscan as 1922, and Corn as 1923. See the account book entries for 25 February 1922, 27–28 February 1922, 11 March 1922, 13 March 1922, and 15 March 1922 in Folder 6, Box 81(1), 1974 W.A. Dwiggins Collection, Boston Public Library.
9. Dwiggins seemed to love processions as he illustrated several of them over the course of his career. See Collar and Daniels’ First Year Latin (Boston: Ginn and Company, 1918), the print “The Bega’s Summer Palace, Ageb” (1919), the folder for Strathmore Paper Co.’s Paper Is Part of the Picture series (1923), Book II of The Travels of Marco Polo (Rochester, New York: The Printing House of Leo Hart, 1933), the cover of the Caravan specimen (Brooklyn: Mergenthaler Linotype Co., 1940), the promotional material for History on the March series of textbooks from D.C. Heath and Co. (c.1946), and the double-page title of The Glistening Hill (Hingham, Massachusetts: Püterschein-Hingham, 1950). Although published in 1923, the Strathmore portfolio illustration was created a few months after the Goldenrod procession. See the account book entries for 6 July 1922, 11 July 1922, 16 August 1922, and 8 September 1922 in Folder 6, Box 81(1), 1974 W.A. Dwiggins Collection, Boston Public Library.
10. The Printing Art vol. XXXIX, no. 6 (August 1922), p. 554. Lawrence A. Dudley replaced George Squires as the advertising manager of the Hampshire Paper Company in 1919.
11. See the account book entries for 28 June 1922 and 29 June 1922 in Folder 6, Box 81(1), 1974 W.A. Dwiggins Collection, Boston Public Library.
12. I have been unable to identify specific inspirations or models for the variety of Orientalist imagery in Dwiggins’ designs for The Pageant of Color series. The oboe-like instrument could also be an Indian shehnai or nadaswaram; or a Moroccan rhaita or mezmar. Dwiggins may have drawn ideas for the costumes from the Ballets Russes. See Léon Bakst’s costume for a Russian dancer and for a eunuch in the production of Schéhérazade. (Many online sources date the costume to 1910 but the drawing reproduced here clearly says 1912. From Souvenir Serge de Diaghileff’s Ballet Russe with Originals by Leon Bakst and Others [New York: Metropolitan Ballet Company, Inc., 1916].) Also see the the photograph of Enrico Cecchetti as a Persian flutist. This souvenir apparently accompanied the 1916 American tour of the Ballets Russes which included Boston where Dwiggins saw a performance on February 7, 1916.

Drawing by Léon Bakst of eunuch for Schéhérazade (1912).

A related example of Dwiggins’ love of Orientalism is his design of the first proscenium for the 0.5 Irving Street marionette theatre (1932 or 1933). See W.A. Dwiggins: A Life in Design by Bruce Kennett (San Francisco: Letterform Archive, 2018), p. 407. Compare its musicians to these.
13. The Tree of Life, symbolizing eternal life, is found in many cultures. It is an ancient symbol found on shawls, rugs, and other woven items from India and Persia. The exact identity of the tree historically has been the subject of debate. It was originally a soma or lotus tree in Buddhism, a fig tree or date palm in Hinduism, a haoma or cypress tree in Persian art; and, later, a pomegranate, fir, cedar or willow. Dwiggins’ rendition, a “beautifully flowering plant” of no obvious provenance in nature, matches no existing interpretation.
14. The comps for Tuscan and Cafe are in a large scrapbook in Box 80, 1974 W.A. Dwiggins Collection, Boston Public Library.
15. See Transactions of The Society of Calligraphers Bulletin No. 2 (February 3, 1925). The leaves appear in the array of elements shown on the inside recto, but the flowers do not.
16. The partnership of Arthur Herrick (1897–1970) and Raymond Lufkin (1899–1978) was formed in 1922. Their studio was located in The Little Building at 80 Boylston Street, several blocks from where Dwiggins had his studio between 1917 and 1922.
17. The men are not clamming—or, rather, they should not be—since Boston prohibited the practice in 1906 due to pollution in the harbor.
18. See Woman Suffrage and Women’s Rights by Ellen Carol DuBois (New York and London: New York University Press, 1998), p. 268.
19. “Hope, History and H.G. Wells” by Herbert Croly in The New Republic vol. XXIX, no. 365 (November 30, 1921), p. 8.
20. For “The Bega’s Summer Palace, Ageb” see W.A. Dwiggins: A Life in Design by Bruce Kennett (San Francisco: Letterform Archive, 2018), p. 132. For the Strathmore illustrations see Paper Is Part of the Picture no. 15—Strathmore Artists’ Series (1923).
21. A different pagoda made from wooden stamps appears in Modern Color by Carl Gordon Cutler and Stephen C. Pepper (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1923) as part of the headpiece to Chapter 8. Dwiggins probably derived his pagodas from those in the work of Jean-Baptiste Pillement (1728–1808).
22. The River Nance is in Brittany, France near Nantes. Jassica is in Serbia. An online search for Gallitan III and the entire text failed to find any matching reference.
23. Among the papers that Paul E. Vernon & Co. distributed was Old Hampshire Bond. Vernon went on to publish other photographic records of motoring trips in Morocco, India, and the United States. See, for example, Morocco from a Motor (London: A. & C. Black, 1927) and From Coast to Coast by Motor (London: A. & C. Black, 1930).
24. Paisley is an ornamental textile design using the boteh or buta, a teardrop-shaped motif with a curved upper end. Persian in origin, paisley designs became very popular in the West in the 18th and 19th centuries, following imports of post–Mughal Empire versions of the design from India, especially in the form of Kashmir shawls and were then replicated locally in Scottish mills in Paisley (hence the English name). See paisley power.com for more information and some historical examples.
25. John French Wilson was a Cleveland lawyer and amateur poet. He was born in Belmont County, Ohio near Cambridge which is probably how he came to know Dwiggins. I have not found any connection between him and Anna Spellman Wilson, an early Dwiggins client.
26. For a photograph of Prue’s window display see Merchants Record and Show Window vol. LII, no. 1 (January 1923), p. 17. “Shawls that Paisley Made” by Alice and Bettina Jackson in The International Studio vol. LXXVIII, no. 322 (March 1924), pp. 525-530. With his studio on Boylston Street in 1918, Dwiggins may have seen the same paisley shawl as the Jackson sisters. As an influence on Dwiggins see Persian and Indian Textiles from the Late Sixteenth to the Early Nineteenth Century by R. M. Riefstahl (New York: E. Weyhe, 1923).
27. See “Airports and Airways” column in Aviation vol. XV, no. 7  (August 13, 1923), p. 192.
28. See the elements in the fifth and seventh rows on the inside recto page of Transactions of The Society of Calligraphers Bulletin No. 2 (February 3, 1925).
29. Roman sculptures were not pure white as they appear in most museums today. They were originally painted in bright colors intended to make them look life-like. See the Liebieghaus Museum “digitorial” for some striking examples.
30. The car could also be a 1923 Packard Six Single Six Touring Car or 1924 Chrysler Chrysler Six. In the 1910s Dwiggins did advertising work for Packard and Waverley cars so it is likely that he based this car on a specific model. The cloche hat, invented in 1908 by French milliner Caroline Reboux, became fashionable around 1922. It has since come to symbolize flappers, the young women of the Roaring Twenties.
31. After discovering his work via D.B. Updike around 1907, Pillement was a constant influence throughout Dwiggins’ career. The relationship between Dwiggins and Pillement will be explored in a future post.

Detail from Scalamandre wallpaper design with imagery by Jean-Baptiste Pillement. Note the bridge and the tree to the left of the pagoda.

Chinoiserie by Jean-Baptiste Pillement from Nouvelle Suite de Cahiers Chinois à l’usage des dessinateurs et des Peintres, Inventés et dessinés par Jean Pillement, gravés par Anne Allen (1755).

32. Dwiggins worked on Goldenrod and Turquoise between February 25 and March 15, 1922; on Tuscan between September 27 and October 27, 1922; on Blue between January 9 and 23, 1923; on Pink between September 7 and 11, 1923; on Cafe on December 12 and 13, 1923; on Gray on March 26 and 17, 1924; on Corn on October 8, 1924; on Azure from January 14 to 16, 1925; and on Champagne from April 18 to 21, 1925. See Folder 6, Box 81(1), 1974 W.A. Dwiggins Collection, Boston Public Library. During the years 1922 to 1925 Dwiggins worked on over thirty paper specimens and promotional booklets for S.D. Warren Co.
33. Exactly when Dwiggins was diagnosed with diabetes is unclear since the letters to Carl Purington Rollins in which he discusses it are undated. Although he vowed in those letters to quit advertising and do work that he enjoyed, the amount of advertising work that he did actually increased enormously between 1922 and 1927. Advertising paid well and Dwiggins needed the money. The correspondence is in Box 2, Carl Purington Rollins Papers (AOB 9), Robert B. Haas Faimly Arts Library, Yale University. My thoughts on Dwiggins’ diabetes will be the subject of a future post.
34. I have assumed that Dwiggins was responsible for the typography of The Pageant of Color inserts since some of his account book entries indicate he was working on the dummies and not just the illustrations or ornaments. The inserts were all set in Caslon, including those that Dwiggins did not illustrate. Some include his lettering, both cursive and typographic. He was not responsible for the Old Hampshire Bond logo lettering which dates back at least as far as 1900.
35. Compare the romantic work that Dwiggins did for Hampshire Paper Co. to the more utilitarian work he did for S.D. Warren Co. See The Definitive Dwiggins no. 222 and The Definitive Dwiggins no. 223.