Scanning Around With Gene: A Cornucopia of Corny Clip Art Cuts

Regular readers of this column know I’m a sucker for corny clip art, especially if it began life as a metal printer’s cut. I could fill every week’s effort with such art, but like a cappella music, corny clip art is best enjoyed in small doses.
But it’s been a while, so I pulled out several issues of “Nationwide Cut News” a catalog/newspaper published by the East Texas Engraving Company in Tyler, Texas. The issues represented here were published in 1946 and 1947 (except the automobile images, which are from the 1950s). Each issue contained thousands of cuts, filling 32 tabloid-size pages. Click on any image for a larger size.



The quality of these images is poor because they were printed on newsprint at small sizes more than 50 years ago, and as you might imagine, the paper has yellowed and degraded.



The East Texas Engraving Company advertised itself as the “biggest mail-order engravers in America,” and I don’t doubt it. Not only did the company offer stock cuts, but it also made cuts from customer-supplied artwork. In those days, of course, all art and photos had to be made into cuts before it could be printed on letterpress equipment.



I’ve written about the process of making metal cuts before (see the “Related Articles” sidebar on this page for links to three of those past columns), so I won’t go into detail again other than to remind everyone that these were metal plates (usually zinc or copper) adhered to wood blocks made to a standard height for letterpress printing.



These cuts could be used over and over again, so printers often had drawers full of different images and used them the same way we use clip art today.



There is a difference between good corny clip art and bad corny clip art. It’s hard to explain, but I know it when I see it. Bad corny clip art has no redeeming value and was usually drawn poorly to start with. Good corny clip art survives over time and while it may look dated, it retains character and charm.



The East Texas Engraving Company’s corny clip art included good and bad examples, but in my opinion, it was mostly good corny clip art. My favorite part is the hand lettering that graces many of the cuts. In fact, just about all the lettering was done by hand, drawn as part of the original design.



To make a good metal cut you need clean line art to start with. For as little as $6 to $12, the artists at East Texas Engraving Company would make a line drawing from your photograph or written instructions.



Stock cuts sold for as low as $1 each, depending on the size. For an extra charge you could have your cut sent via airmail, which is what we had before FedEx.


According to a Web search, the East Texas Engraving Company is still in business in Tyler, doing prepress work and vehicle graphics. I only hope they managed to save their extensive artwork collection. It would be a shame to lose such a prime example of Americana.
Follow Gene on Twitter: https://twitter.com/SAWG

Gene Gable has spent a lifetime in publishing, editing and the graphic arts and is currently a technology consultant and writer. He has spoken at events around the world and has written extensively on graphic design, intellectual-property rights, and publishing production in books and for magazines such as Print, U&lc, ID, Macworld, Graphic Exchange, AGI, and The Seybold Report. Gene's interest in graphic design history and letterpress printing resulted in his popular columns "Heavy Metal Madness" and "Scanning Around with Gene" here on CreativePro.com.
  • Anonymous says:

    Gene — As an old, veteran agency Creative Director (since 1967), these cuts brought back a lot of memories, especially the auto cuts. I remember the time when our (at that time) male oriented ad biz thought “Cute Girls” was the way to get attention in ads. This seemed especially true for the car dealer accounts I used to handle. Today, it’s all about “Kids and Dogs” as attention getters.
    Gene Doyle
    Creative Media
    Lexington, KY

  • Anonymous says:

    I worked at an art store in the late 80s while I was going to art school. The last clip art book I bought from them was a book of vintage illustrations. Many of the examples you’ve shown are in this book. I’ve hung onto it and still use it from time to time. I agree with you, they have a somewhat timeless quality about them. Vintage but still contemporary. I’ll have to see what brand to book is, I don’t think it was Dover. Great article Gene!

  • Anonymous says:

    Thanks!

  • HawaiiBill says:

    This is 75-year-old Cowboy Bill from Ft. Worth, Texas, saying THANK YOU for these selections. Great to be carried back in time and I’m thinking hard of some way to revive some of them in work for current clients.
    ——— Aloha from Hawai`i —-
    An old man, a writer who likes people, living in the middle of the Pacific ocean near volcanoes, in tradewinds, enjoying soft bird songs.

  • Anonymous says:

    I was so excited to see these! Great article. I am going to print your article and see how many people here remember them. I would like to hear the stories that these bring back to the locals, maybe even run into someone that did/does work there.

  • Anonymous says:

    Gary Barsch, a typographer’s typographer who owned Ad Grafic Type in Santa Ana, California used to set headline type for some of the best magazines in the country. In addition to his 10,000 headline fonts, he had a wide selection of borders, printer’s ornaments and cutline illustrations. Before he dispersed his collection and closed his business back in the 90’s, he created three different books for the Dover series. These are among my most prized resources. The advertsing cuts after I scan them, convert them to vectors and add drop shadows become fresh, elegant graphics that can hold their own in a number of applications.

    Ron Geisman

  • Anonymous says:

    Oh my, it was only 10 years ago that I stopped using cut-out clip art! Oh those were the days. I did ad layout for a weekely newspaper in Pennsburg, PA. Thanks for the great article, Gene:)

  • Anonymous says:

    My first job out of school was as an illustrator for a matchbook company. My first assignment was to update their clip art selection. Much was like the samples shown, some was just too campy and cool to change.

  • Anonymous says:

    Just want to let you know that I love your Scanning with Gene blog series, its great entertainment and great design history, but relevant too, since everything old is new again…

  • Anonymous says:

    I for one am shocked at the sloppy spelling. That should be “Kornukopia of Korny . . .” etc etc.

  • Anonymous says:

    as you no doubt know, some of these look to have been done by lew hymers. his style was so clear.

  • Anonymous says:

    Gene,

    Thanks for the trip down Mat Service Lane. I did speed ball lettering and layouts for Bay Area grocery stores using mat services in the sixties. The guys a Howard Quinn in San Francisco in the art department waited for each new book to see if the wags had finally sneaked in a cut for the meat department, “You can’t beat our meat!” By the time it appeared in a book I had moved on to Owl Printing.Gene, Thanks for the trip down Mat Service Lane. In the sixtiesI did speed ball lettering and layouts for Bay Area grocery stores using mat services. The guys in the art department at Howard Quinn Printing in San Francisco waited for each new book to see if the wags had finally sneaked in a special cut for the meat department. By the time “You can’t beat our meat!” appeared as a department cut I had moved on to Owl Printing and the Fillmore was still a new place dance.

    Oh, and those are the 1967 automobiles.

    Jack

  • Anonymous says:

    i like that clip on the automotive wats 177 bec. it reminds me more of the 60’s style for the cars designs. If you will just compare the diff. fog lamps on every car brand above it tells a diff. story ever since.

  • Anonymous says:

    Love the lettering.

  • David Jones says:

    Gene, jisg fan across this article on East Texas Engraving co. I started working there in 1971. We mailed out hundreds of cuts a weekit was a lucrative business. I stuck with through the highs and lows until in 2010 they let me go because of poor management. Unfortunately, they went out of business 2 months later.
    So in march 2011 I started the business up again in the same location. So now I own it. It is Jones Engraving now. Same location and a lot of the same equipment. I have a couple of the old publications that use to hang in our office. One from 1948 and one from 1957.
    I learned every corner of the business over the years and run it now on my own.
    Would love to have any extra publications you have it you want to turn loose of any.
    Great article. Brings back a lot of memories.

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