In our recent renovations with the street level flooring of the Western NY Book Arts Center, we have unearthed (or defloored?) a vibrant silkscreened dress box from the Slotkin department store who was the namesake tenant of the building that still has it's signage on the Washington St side of the building. Slotkin's was an upscale womens' dress shop at our location at 468 Washington St. in downtown Buffalo. It was likely* from the corner window of Slotkin's that Charles Burchfield painted the view of the Electric tower while waiting for his wife to do some shopping. It was later in the 1950's and 60's a semi-legendary new and used bookshop. The basement once filled with books is now filled with equipment to make books. Interesting.
(*editorial conjecture)
2 comments:
This is great, it seems the craftsmanship that went into packaging back in the old days was a lot more in-depth that todays plastic bags 'with a logo on them.'
And I don't know if it the inks they used back them, but everything seems more vibrant in the olden times.
Finding this makes you a sort of 'graphics archeologist" eh?
I actually shopped in Slotkins in the early 1970s and may still even have a dress from there tucked into the closet recesses. It's great that this little piece of history will see some good use.
I saw the sign for your Edible Book Show today and will post a notice for it on my little food blog.
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