May 12, 2008 - Sale 2145

Sale 2145 - Lot 157

Price Realized: $ 3,120
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 3,000 - $ 4,000
DESIGNERS UNKNOWN J.L. HUDSON DEPARTMENT STORE. Group of 71 posters. Circa 1941.
Each approximately 30x20 inches, 76x50 1/2 cm.
Condition varies, generally B+. Silk-screen. Paper.
An exceptional group of in-store advertisements for one of Detroit's biggest department stores. The images advertise various sales throughout the year and in various departments, including fur coats, men's shirts, back to school attire, kitchenware and more. They include advertising events for the store's 59th and 60th anniversary in 1941. Some images have little text and large blank spaces, presumably for written lists of sale items, others are the same images depicted using different color schemes. Hudson's, also known as The J.L. Hudson Company, was a major retail chain based in Detroit, whose flagship store on Woodward Avenue was the second largest department store in the U.S. after Macy's in New York. Hudson's stores spread throughout Michigan, Indiana and Ohio before several mergers and buyouts led to name changes, and their ultimate acquisition by the May Company-all stores were renamed Macy's. The Detroit flagship closed in 1983, and the building was demolished in 1998.