{"product_id":"boraxo-pastel-heads-advertising-print-on-wood-panel-c-1907","title":"Boraxo \"Pastel Heads\" Advertising Print on Wood Panel, c. 1907","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Piece\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA period advertising sheet, printed in soft pastel color, mounted permanently to a plain wood panel. Four half-length portraits of Edwardian women fill the corners — each in an elaborate wide-brimmed hat trimmed with roses, gauze, and ribbon, painted in the pale blue-grey and dusty rose palette that defined commercial \"beauty head\" printing between about 1900 and 1915. Across the top, in a heavy serif: \u003cstrong\u003eThese Beautiful Pastel Heads Free.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eRead the center panel and the object explains itself. It advertises Boraxo Bath Powder, one of a series of four prints at 14 × 17 inches each, given away with every 25¢ tin — buy the tin from your grocer, remove the label from the top, mail it with five stamps to the Pacific Coast Borax Co., and the pastel head arrives by return post. At the bottom: \u003cstrong\u003eOffer expires January 1st, 1908.\u003c\/strong\u003e That line dates the sheet. This is the announcement, not the prize. The four heads shown here are miniatures of premiums that went out at full size; what survives is the piece of paper that advertised them.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe condition is that of a promotional sheet never meant to last a year, let alone a century. Quadrant fold creases run through the composition, dividing the four heads. The paper has toned to a warm ivory, with scattered foxing and two areas of brown staining — one substantial patch at the lower right across the seated figure's shoulder, a smaller one at lower center. The pastel inks have faded, which flattens the contrast and, if anything, improves the thing as an object. Under raking light the sheet shows its texture and a slight ripple from the adhesive beneath.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eHistory \u0026amp; Provenance\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe Pacific Coast Borax Company was formed in 1890 by Francis Marion Smith, the \"Borax King,\" and built one of the most durable trademarks in American consumer goods around the twenty-mule teams that hauled borax out of Death Valley in the 1880s. Boraxo, its powdered soap line, is the product being sold here — and the sales mechanic on this sheet is the mail-in premium, the dominant tool of packaged-goods advertising in the decade before the First World War. Give away something a household would hang on a wall, and the brand name goes up with it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe \"pastel head\" was the standard currency of that exchange. Publishers and advertisers issued them by the millions: idealized young women in seasonal hats, printed in halftone to imitate the soft-focus pastel portraiture then fashionable, and sized to fit a parlor wall. This sheet carries no artist credit and none is legible, which is normal — the genre's commercial output was largely unsigned, and attribution to any of the named illustrators working in it would be a guess. Catalogued here by the printed evidence on the sheet itself.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe mount is a separate and much later event. The sheet has been glued to a wood panel, the paper's perimeter torn to an irregular deckle, and the exposed wood around it stained dark brown to frame the image — the vocabulary of mid-century decoupage plaque work, applied to a great many antique prints in a great many American basements. It is not original, it is not reversible, and this is not sold as an unmounted print. The reverse is bare wood with visible mill marks, a single small screw remaining near the top center with white paint residue around it, and a second fixing mark below.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe board is the reason this survived at all. An unmounted 1907 giveaway sheet with quadrant folds is a fragile thing that mostly ended up in the stove. This one got glued down and hung up.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e[Walter — acquisition line goes here.]\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eProduct Details\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ctable\u003e\n\u003cthead\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003cth\u003eField\u003c\/th\u003e\n\u003cth\u003eDetail\u003c\/th\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003c\/thead\u003e\n\u003ctbody\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eObject\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eAdvertising premium announcement sheet, mounted on a wood panel as a hanging plaque\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eOrigin\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eAmerican — Pacific Coast Borax Company\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eForm\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eRectangular upright panel; printed sheet adhered to wood, paper edge torn to an irregular deckle, surrounding wood stained dark brown as a border\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eMaterial\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eColor-printed paper on a solid wood panel; adhesive mount; stained wood border. Reverse bare wood with mill marks\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eMarks\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003ePrinted headline: \"These Beautiful Pastel Heads Free.\" Center panel, as legible: \"ONE OF A SER[IE]S OF FOUR — SIZE 14×17 \/ To Be Given Away With Each 25¢ Tin \/ BORAXO BATH POWDER,\" with redemption instructions referencing the top of the tin, five stamps, and the Pacific Coast Borax Co.; \"PRICE 25¢\"; \"Offer expires January 1st, 1908.\" Portions of the panel abraded and only partly legible. No artist signature located\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eEra\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003ePrinted sheet dated by its own expiration line to c. 1907. Wood mounting substantially later — treatment characteristic of mid-20th-century decoupage plaque work, undated\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e[Dimensions to be inserted]\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eCondition\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eNot a single-period object and not sold as one: an early 20th-century printed sheet on a later wood mount, permanently adhered and not separable without destroying the paper. Panel structurally sound. Paper toned to warm ivory with scattered foxing; brown staining at the lower right across one figure and a smaller patch at lower center; quadrant fold creases through the composition; pastel inks faded from original strength; portions of the printed ad panel abraded and partly illegible; slight surface ripple from the adhesive. Irregular paper perimeter appears deliberately torn as part of the mounting rather than accidental loss. Reverse retains one small screw with white paint residue and a second fixing mark. Sold as a decorative wall object, not as a collectible unmounted print. Condition Guaranteed.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAvailability\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eOne of a Kind — 1 Available\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003c\/tbody\u003e\n\u003c\/table\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWhy It Belongs in Your Home\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt's already a wall object. No framing, no glazing, no matting decision, no trip to the framer — it arrives ready to hang, which for a piece of 1907 paper is unusual and worth something. The dark stained border does the work a frame would, and the tight scale suits the walls that defeat framed art: the narrow run between a door casing and a corner, the space above a low console, the stretch over a laundry sink.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe palette needs help, though. These inks have faded to a genuinely soft register, and on a white or pale wall the whole thing will go quiet and disappear. Hang it on something saturated — a deep green, a dark clay, a papered wall with pattern — and the pale heads read as luminous instead of washed out. That contrast is the difference between this working and this vanishing.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe obvious placement is a bathroom, since the sheet is literally selling bath powder. Resist it if the room has a shower. Unglazed paper on a wood mount in a steam room will cockle, lift, and grow mold along the adhesive line. A powder room with no tub is fine, and a laundry room is better still — the 20 Mule Team lineage puts it exactly where it belongs, and the humidity is intermittent rather than daily.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCare: keep it out of direct sunlight, since the pastel inks are already faded and will continue to go. Dust with a dry soft brush only — no cloths, no sprays, no water, nothing on the paper surface. Don't attempt to lift the print off the board; the mount is permanent and any attempt will take the paper with it. Hang from a wall anchor rated well above the panel's weight.\u003cstrong\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Viridian Eclection","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48003650322537,"sku":null,"price":144.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0651\/0093\/9369\/files\/IMG_3358.jpg?v=1788752680","url":"https:\/\/viridianeclection.com\/products\/boraxo-pastel-heads-advertising-print-on-wood-panel-c-1907","provider":"Viridian Eclection","version":"1.0","type":"link"}