1930 · Richmond, VA
by Reerless Beauty Supplies
Richmond, VA: Printed by Quality Publishing Company, 1930. Very Good. Broadside poster. 43 x 54 cm. White (or maybe light tan) lettering on blue banners and placard. The poster include 20, mostly oval, modest-sized black and white photos showing front or back views of the heads of African American women with various hairstyles. Photos by "the Browns." Two holes punched along top, perhaps to be used for hanging this poster in a beauty shop. Modest general soiling and wear. Some old staining along bottom, mostly in the margin rather than the image. This was probably intended to be hung in African American Beauty Shops. We don't know much of anything about Peerless Beauty Supplies. VCU Scholars Compass has a photo online of 525 N. 2nd Street from 1978 showing a modest-sizes older building which seems unlikely to have housed a large manufacturing enterprise. A note below the photo states that the five hundred black of North Second Street was once the commercial center of Jackson Ward (in Richmond). A copy of this poster brought $900 at Swann Galleries in 2013 (Lot 222 in Sale 2308). OCLC locates 3 copies (Syracuse, Yale and U Va.). (Inventory #: 95363)
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