A catalogue of hats

Commercial catalogues proliferated from the middle of the nineteenth century. Everyone used them, from the luxury craftsman to the mass-producer, from the specialised retailer to department stores. In certain fields ― as in this example, the hat trade ― the photograph had trouble asserting itself as a form of illustration because all hats have a distinct family likeness. This catalogue, printed photolitho in halftone by the lyonnais printer Arnaud, succeeds in rendering all the subtleties of shape and texture. Technically speaking, the success of the halftone was the combined result of improvements in the photographic processes, the papers and the quality of the printing.

The brochure comes from the archives of the now defunct printing firm of B. Arnaud in Villeurbanne in the South-East of France, which are now in the collections of the Musée de l'imprimerie et de la communication graphique, Lyon (Micg inv 4725).