(LOT 116)
Famous 1940s Chesterfield Cigarettes Original Unrestored Display Ad Piece with Williams, Musial & DiMaggio
The 1940s and mid-1950s were the proverbial "golden age" of smoking, peaking in the mid-‘60s as nearly 40% of the adult population smoked cigarettes. Hollywood boasted upwards of two out of three top movie stars advertised cigarettes and smoked on screen. But baseball was hardly immune to the practice, as The Babe could be seen pushing Old Gold tobacco while Walter Johnson and Christy Mathewson represented Tuxedo tobacco brand, among others. And, of course, let's not forget that this great hobby of ours was built on tobacco cards. Therefore, when you see a strikingly bright and colorful tobacco advertising piece like this 21" x 22" Chesterfield Cigarettes ad featuring six greats, it seems almost commonplace for the era. Produced in late 1947 or 1948, this candy-apple red poster hosts the NL and AL MVPs in Bob Elliott and Joe DiMaggio, respectively, as well as Ted Williams, Stan Musial, Yankees manager Bucky Harris and Cincinnati's Ewell Blackwell. This endearing ad piece hosts alarmingly bright colors with the Chesterfield pack at center and the tagline "The Baseball Man's Cigarette", and shows no signs of restoration. Very few examples of this stupendous advertisement have survived these 75-plus years without sustaining some amount of restoration. This example has yet to be restored and has not required it. Only scattered expected wrinkles are subtly present throughout, with none breaking the color, preserving the overall luster of the advertisement. The lack of touch-ups and restoration makes this one of the most desirable advertisements Chesterfield, or any other tobacco company, has ever produced with nothing that could possibly divert your attention from its brilliance. The red 27" x 28" frame will be included with the lot.

MIN BID $2,000
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