This was a sweet little graphic for a sweet little product, circa 1913. I sincerely wish that transportation had not progressed beyond this sort of conveyance (it's really similar to Grandma Duck's auto as rendered by Carl Barks). As a society we move too fast and have made things too complicated...and too reliable on non-renewable energy sources.
Looking at this image last night, as I was processing it, I suddenly wondered who the hell is driving here? It's a hundred years too early for the Google Self-Driving Car!
5 comments:
Hi there...My interpretation of the driverless little car is this. The gentleman in a long grey coat and a flat cap, seen to the right, is the chauffeur. He's holding something heavy on his shoulder. (Don't know what it might be.) The door on the other side of the car is open, you can sort of see the edge of it, and the empty driver's seat can't be seen from that angle, as Mr. and Mrs. Swell are in front of it. The car is stopped while the chauffeur does his errand. There are some modern cars which look a bit like Baker's, such as the old Toyota Scion or the Nissan Cube.
On closer inspection it seems that the passengers in the Baker car are a family, with Dad and Mom riding with two young, teenage, marriageable daughters. Also note that the weather is awful, it is snowing or raining, and the Swell family is protected inside the car rather than stuck outside with carriages and ice.
Thanks for your interpretations, Pyracantha. They are sort of logical, but really, a chauffeur in this little buggy? True, this is a family of swells, maybe heading off to the the-a-tuh. ButI don't think the car is stopped — notice that the wheels appear to be in motion with a sort of blur. Most baffling. Did these kind of cars have any heating? It looks like the upper windshield is propped open, making it pretty chilly in there, I would think.
Yes you're right, the wheels are spinning so this vehicle must be in motion despite the bad weather. I do wonder who the man in the grey uniform is in front on the road to the right. He is hauling something squarish and heavy. What is also cool about this ad is that it's for an ELECTRIC car...revolutionary even now. You can upgrade the Swell family so they're riding in an electric Mercedes.
A quick perusal of a print ad on Wikipedia tells us that the front seats swivel to face backward and that the vehicle may be steered with a lever from the back seat. Seems like it would be kind of hard to see over the front seat passengers, but evidently it could be done.
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