Vintage Magi Just Passing Through

Born in London in 1895, Aaron Broun studied at New York School of Design and the Beaux Arts Society. Through the 1920's, he operated out of studio/ateliers near Union Sq., on W. 98th Street, and from several addresses in between. A fan of Ludwig Hohlwein, he published numerous "poster cards" of NYC landmarks in Hohlwein's style in 1923, as well as a 40 plate volume of his posters. The previous year, he had been listed in The American Jewish Year Book 5683 as a prominent and "notable American Jew". As publisher, he also produced a volume of poster stamps, in 1928, and one of decorative geldprints, in 1930. Also during that time, he and his atelier were creating designs for the "colour at home" greeting card industry, which designs comprise the larger part of the trunkful of documents that I (Stan Magnan, b.1948) found in the garbage on West 85th Street, about 35 years ago. The youngest document in the trunk was a letter from Kalamazoo Stationery Company, dated August 29, 1931, thanking and praising him for his submissions, but wondering why, after their wire and Special Delivery letter, they had not heard from him. The products in the Zazzle Store are recreated from scans of the original artwork, processed to varying degrees by myself, with the help of our fine friends at Adobe. The Posterettes and the Ads are digitally processed only to a degree that I feel might recapture their original essence. The Patterns are extrapolated from smaller, sample illustrations, sometimes with a mere 1-1/2 repeat. Most of the Cards exist as black pen & ink illustrations on heavy stock, with colour overlays. Unlike the poster cards, ad art, and pattern designs, I believe most of the greeting cards are not from Aaron's hand, though many are, and (I suspect) many more of the overlays are so. (The overlays were used by the printer for colouring suggestions, to the customers, in their catalogues.) In my reproductions, although some of the cards have been re-imagined solely from an overlay, sometimes from the sketch, and often from both, I've played fast & freely with the colours, as was (I hope) the original intent.