Vintage Automobile Ad, 1920s, Pierce-Arrow adau7

Beautiful color Pierce Arrow advertisement that appeared in ASIA Magazine, 1927, 8 1/8"x11 3/4". On the reverse is a Chrysler ad, so, this is a sort of a two for one deal. This is a beautiful piece with plenty of margin to allow framing.

A word about this advertisement and the media it came from. All of our vintage automobile color ads came from "Asia Magazine", a decidedly high end journal. Subscribers were the rich and influential, and included presidents, government officials, high society, and captains of industry. This advertising appealed directly to the elite of America. This is a distinctly different buying public than responded later to Henry Ford's Models A and T, automobile for the masses. The vehicles here are in the company of yachts, national monuments, the White House, Country Clubs, Estates, and other venues of the rich and famous. The vehicles are often depicted with uniformed chauffers at the wheel or holding doors open.

About the subject

Pierce-Arrow was an American automobile manufacturer based in Buffalo, New York, which was active between 1901 and 1938. Best known for its expensive luxury cars, Pierce-Arrow also manufactured commercial trucks, fire trucks, camp trailers, motorcycles, and bicycles. The forerunner of Pierce-Arrow was established in 1865 as Heinz, Pierce and Munschauer. The company was best known for its household items, and especially its delicate, gilded birdcages. In 1872, George N. Pierce bought out the other two, switching the name to George N. Pierce Company and, in 1896, bicycles were added to the product range. A failed attempt to build a steam-powered car was made in 1900 under license from Overman but, by 1901 Pierce built its first single-cylinder two-speed (no reverse) Motorette with the engine licensed from de Dion. In 1904, a two-cylinder car, the Arrow was made. In 1903 Pierce decided to concentrate on making a larger, more luxurious auto for the upscale market, and the Pierce-Arrow automobile was born. This proved to be Pierce's most successful product, and the solidly-built cars with powerful engines gained positive publicity by winning various auto races. During this period, Pierce's high-end products were sometimes advertised as the Great-Arrow. In 1908 Pierce Motor Company was renamed The Pierce-Arrow Motor Car Company.

In 1909, U.S. President William Howard Taft ordered two Pierce-Arrows to be used for state occasions, the first official automobiles of the White House. An open-bodied Pierce-Arrow carried Woodrow Wilson and Warren G. Harding to Harding’s 1921 inauguration. A restored 1919 Pierce-Arrow is on view at the Wilson Presidential Library. Herbert M. Dawley (later a Broadway actor-director) joined Pierce-Arrow in 1912, and designed almost every model between until 1938. In 1914, Pierce-Arrow adopted its most enduring styling hallmark when the headlights of the vehicle were moved from the traditional placement on either side of the radiator into flared housings molded into the front fenders of the car. This gave the car an immediate visual identification from the side; at night it gave the car the appearance of a wider stance. The Pierce-Arrow was a status symbol, owned by many Hollywood stars, corporate tycoons; royalty of many foreign nations had at least one Pierce-Arrow in their collections. In American luxury cars it was rivaled only by Peerless and Packard, which collectively received the accolade Three P's of Motordom. Industrial efficiency expert Frank Gilbreth extolled the virtues of Pierce-Arrow, in both quality and in its ability to safely transport his large family. Pierce-Arrow advertisements were artistic and understated. Unusually for automobile advertising, the image of the car was in the background rather than the foreground of the picture. Usually only a portion of the automobile was visible. The Pierce-Arrow was typically depicted in elegant and fashionable settings. Some advertisements featured the car in places an automobile would not normally go, such as the West and other rural settings, a testament to car's ruggedness and quality.