PLAZA Hotel San Francisco Blotter Ad Union Square c1940s Typo Errors Foxing
$ 10.56
Description
PLAZA Hotel San Francisco Blotter Ad Union Square c1940s Typo Errors Foxing. The presence of scattered brown foxing spots, particularly along the right side and lower left quadrant, along with a few blue ink dots and minor edge wear, confirms the item’s age and history of handling. This is an advertising blotter for The Plaza hotel in San Francisco, California, a promotional item designed to be both a practical desk accessory and a subtle advertisement for the establishment. The blotter’s central feature is an oval illustration depicting the hotel building, a stately structure rendered in red ink on an off-white, cream-toned paper that has developed a warm patina consistent with mid-century aging. Beneath the illustration, large script proclaims “Overlooking beautiful Union Square,” situating the hotel within the city’s premier commercial and cultural district. The body text, set in a smaller serif font, promotes the hotel’s recent modernization, noting “completely modernized . . . new furnishings, new tile baths, new restaurants, including sensational El Prado,” a reference to the hotel’s on-site dining venue. The text contains two notable typographical errors: “furnishirgs” for “furnishings” and “sensatio.al” for “sensational,” likely the result of a printing flaw or a slight misalignment in the typeset, which adds a layer of idiosyncratic character to the piece. The hotel name, “THE PLAZA,” appears in bold, red block letters, with “SAN FRANCISCO” centered below, anchoring the advertisement geographically. The reverse side of the blotter bears the blotted impressions of handwritten text in blue ink, now rendered as mirror-image fragments that are largely illegible but suggest the blotter was used for its intended purpose, absorbing excess ink from a personal letter or note. The presence of scattered brown foxing spots, particularly along the right side and lower left quadrant, along with a few blue ink dots and minor edge wear, confirms the item’s age and history of handling. The illustration style, particularly the depiction of automobiles from the 1930s or 1940s, and the promotional emphasis on modernized amenities, suggests this blotter likely dates from the late 1930s through the 1950s, a period when hotels frequently issued such ephemera to attract guests by highlighting recent renovations. As a piece of San Francisco advertising history, this blotter documents the city’s hospitality industry and the mid-century practice of using utilitarian paper goods as a vehicle for commercial messaging.
