Everybody loves a good poster, right? The ideal design should emblazon your wall with inspiration or beauty – a gorgeous photograph or thoughtful statement, rather than your sister’s old “MMMBop” poster from the ‘90s.
In celebration of Mortise & Tenon Magazine’s first 10 issues, we’re releasing this beautiful image of all 10 issues’ wax-sealed trade cards, laid out on the M&T workshop’s wide pine floors, in poster form. The image was technically quite difficult to capture, requiring a complicated sliding platform (built out of rough lumber, of course) to keep the camera in plane to take multiple images. These were seamlessly spliced together, and the result is impressive: The wax seals and card edges seem to leap from the poster stock.
Each of these cards is tied to the handcraft heritage celebrated in the accompanying issue of the magazine – from the Eric Sloane-drawn vignettes on the Issue Five card, to the woodcut of an 18th-century timber framer on Issue Eight’s card, to the hilarious Victorian hyperbole featured on Issue Four (“The Greatest Novelty in PUBLISHING!” “The most powerful invigorant ever produced!”), these follow in the tradition of historic makers who passed around trade cards as a way of promoting quality goods and services.
This thing is big – 16" tall, 28" wide, printed on heavyweight, matte-coated paper. And way better than that old Hanson poster, it can add some pop to your shop.
It’s available for $15, in limited quantity.
-Mike