Picky smokers and their first editions
Here we have a couple of guys who are very particular about their first editions, so declares the ad copy in the vintage magazine advertisement below. Their discriminating tastes, we learn by reading further, extend to their cigarettes, particularly the British brands Three Castles and Passing Clouds made by W.D. & H.O. Wills. Their pickiness, however, does not seem to extend to the handling of their first editions, as they are exposing these volumes to smoke damage and odor, as well as risking burn marks from their cigarettes' ashes. I'm intrigued with the way ad campaigns have used rare books and bibliophiles in the past (haven't seen any in the present) to sell unrelated products. From the few ads I've collected from that earlier era, the relationship they tried to convey seems humorous, even ridiculous, by current-day standards, but in the first half of the 20th century, rare books appear to have held a much higher status for discriminating consumers than th...