Scranton Bedspreads Color Advertisement by Coles Phillips (Art Deco Illustration), Circa 1925 🎨🛌🇺🇸

This is a top-shelf, original, full-color advertisement featuring the work of the famous American illustrator, Coles Phillips.

The ad promotes Scranton Bedspreads for the Scranton Lace Co., serving as a primary source document of American domestic fashion and graphic art from the Art Deco era.

Its value is secured by the verifiable illustration by Coles Phillips and its function as a tangible record of the opulence and changing interior design of the mid-1920s.

2. About the Artwork/Book/Object 📖✍️✨ This is a sophisticated marketing piece for the Scranton Lace Co., announcing their new line of bedspreads, which are advertised as being "as lovely as Scranton Laces and Filet Nets".

The illustration depicts a luxurious four-poster bedroom with strong color contrasts and geometric lines, a hallmark of the Art Deco aesthetic. The foreground features a stylish woman (a "Flapper") in period dress, providing a clear reference to the consumer the product targets.

The ad copy highlights the variety of materials—Marseilles, satins, dimities, and crinkled dimities—and promises "long-wearing and easy-to-launder" materials. The piece captures the transition of the bedspread from a purely functional item to a core component of stylish interior design.

3. About the Artist/Author/Maker ✍️🏛️ The striking illustration is the work of Clarence Coles Phillips (1880–1927). Phillips was one of the highest-paid and most recognizable commercial artists in the United States during the 1910s and 1920s.

He is best known for pioneering the "Fadeaway Girl" technique, where the edges of a figure seamlessly blend into the background, a style that was heavily imitated. Phillips created covers for Good Housekeeping and other major magazines, and his illustrations for major brands like Scranton Lace Co. are considered prime examples of period graphic design.

4. Historical/Political Era Context 🌍🕰️📜 This advertisement dates to the height of the Roaring Twenties (circa 1925), a period of intense cultural modernity and economic confidence in the United States.

The design embodies the Art Deco movement, which was fundamentally changing interior design by favoring clean lines, geometric forms, and high-impact color. This piece is a reaction against the visual density of the preceding Victorian and Edwardian eras.

The successful marketing of luxury home goods like these bedspreads demonstrates the expanding consumer power of the American middle class during this boom period. The ad is a verifiable time capsule of the visual and material culture of pre-Depression American domestic aspiration.

5. The Ideal Collector 💡🧐🏛️ This print is an essential acquisition for a curator of 20th-Century American Commercial Illustration, Art Deco Graphic Design, or Domestic Textile History.

It is ideally suited for a collector who specializes in the work of Coles Phillips or the iconography of the "Roaring Twenties". The item possesses a clear artistic pedigree and is a tangible artifact that documents the intersection of high art, advertising, and fashion in the mid-1920s.

6. Value & Rarity 💎✨🏛️ This original magazine page is approximately 100 years old, surviving the economic chaos of the Great Depression and the fragility of paper media.

Its Bibliographical Scarcity is high due to the difficulty of sourcing the original, complete magazine in which it appeared. The value is significantly secured by its Artistic Premium as a verifiable, full-color work by the master illustrator Coles Phillips. The illustration itself is the primary monetary asset, commanding a premium from collectors of period graphic art.

7. Condition 🔎📚✨ The physical condition has been assessed directly from the provided high-resolution photography. The object is deemed to be in Very Good Vintage Condition, professionally separated from its source publication.

• Media: The ad is a full-page, full-color magazine insert, mounted on cardboard.

• Illustration Integrity: The color print is vibrant with minimal fading, retaining the bold palette of the period .

• Artist Signature: The printed signature of Coles Phillips is visible on the print .

• Imperfections: The edges and corners show minor signs of handling and abrasion, consistent with removal from an antique magazine.

• Backing: The reverse is taped to a backing board, which is a common method of professional preservation for antique prints.

8. Fun Facts & Unique Features 🤓📜🤩

• The Fadeaway Girl: Coles Phillips became famous for his "Fadeaway Girl" technique, which dramatically saved money on printing costs by using the white background as a key part of the figure's silhouette.

• Lace Monopolist: The Scranton Lace Company was historically the largest lace manufacturer in the U.S. and supplied all the lace curtains used in Pullman Rail Cars and luxury hotels.

• The Bedroom Setting: The bed shown in the illustration is a four-poster bed with ornate, dark wood carving, contrasting sharply with the bright, modern, and geometric aesthetic of the curtains and dress .

• Product Expansion: The ad's primary goal was to inform customers that Scranton, known for their curtains, now produced equally lovely bedspreads, demonstrating a major commercial diversification into other domestic textile categories.

9. Supporting Information 🏷️📦💰

• Object Type: Historical Advertisement (Magazine Insert)

• Title: Scranton Bedspreads

• Illustrator: Coles Phillips

• Advertiser: The Scranton Lace Co.

• Year/Period: Circa 1925 (The Roaring Twenties / Art Deco)

• Place of Origin: Scranton, Pennsylvania / USA

• Format/Binding: Single-page Color Print Ad

• Key Products: Bedspreads of Marseilles, satins, dimities; Lace Curtains.