Celanese Corporation of America
New York: Celanese Corporation of America, 1928.

Early promotional booklet for Celanese, a cellulose acetate “artificial silk” fabric, produced by the Celanese Corporation of America. The firm, a Fortune 500 company still operating today as Celanese, the name being a portmanteaux of cellulose and ease, promoting the new product as easy to clean and care for. The booklet is illustrated throughout by Robert L. Leonard (1879-1958), a pioneering figure of American decorative arts, design, and illustration. Having studied and worked as an illustrator in Munich, Berlin, and Paris before migrating to the United States in 1923, he brought with him a modernist style which is on full show in the colourful art deco illustrations. Leonard was a founding member of the American Union of Decorative Artists and Designers and edited the first Annual of American Design in 1931. A rare treat of 1920s fashion and illustration, with only 1 copy recorded in OCLC, at The Metropolitan Museum of Art Library.