Chess in Vintage Print Advertising

Chess in Vintage Print Advertising 

    Although Chess isn't a common theme in advertising non-chess products, the practice goes back at least a century and a half when in 1859* Kaichen & Rothschild of Detroit usurped Morphy's image (unauthorized) to sell their cigars made of superior Cuban Yara tobacco. 
          * Already in 1860 the firm would be known as the Kaichen Brothers.

     While the media still tends to portray chess players as peculiar, anti-social recluses, the advertising field, which seems to know more about human nature than almost anyone, uses chess to convey the idea of discriminating taste and savoir-faire - that is: Quality.

     Perhaps that the truer conception that the general public holds of Caïssa and her disciples . 

     Throughout the years, print ads using a chess theme have covered many products .
     (Some dates given can be interpreted as "circa.")

Tobacco:

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1958 Pall Mall Cigarettes

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1960 Capstan Cigarettes

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1969  Corona Cigars
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1973 Kent Cigarettes

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1973 Saratoga Cigarettes

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1973  Benson& Hedges Cigarettes

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The Softer Drinks:

1945  Canadia Dry Water

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1945  Coca Cola

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1957  Pepsi Cola

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1964  Tab Cola

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1968  Coca Cola

Food:

1909  Ely-Gillmore Fruit Co.

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1909  Ely-Gillmore Fruit Co.

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1909  Ely-Gillmore Fruit Co.

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1909  Ely-Gillmore Fruit Co.

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1909  Ely-Gillmore Fruit Co.

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1927  Meyer W. Chess Brokerage Co. 

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1961   Stouffer's Frozen Cooked Foods

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2011  Barque Smokehouse of Toronto

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Apparel and Accessories: 

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1920  Emery Shirts

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1945  Trifari Jewelry

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1947  Hamilton watches

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1949  Maidenform Bra

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1953  Van Heusen Shirts.
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1963   Botany 500

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1977 Univis Glasses

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2011  Agent Provacateur Perfume

Business and Miscellaneous:
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1952  Sanforized Cotton

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1953  Ladies' Home Journal

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1956  Consolidated Electrodynamcs Corp.

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1957  Pan Am

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1957  Women's Day Magazine

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1958  First National City Bank of N.Y.

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1958  GE

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1960  Bank of America

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1960  Chevrolet

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1960 Martin-Denver

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1960  Pirelli Tires

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1960  Samsonite

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1960  VOTE!

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Ad artwork for unspecified airlines circa 1960

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1964  Formica

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1964  Irving Trust Bank

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1972  JVC Electronics

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1973  Parker Pens

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CTI Kromekote Paper - date unspecified

Indeed it seems that chess has a certain corporate image of sophistication, power, prestige, precision, of conviviality and congeniality, risqué and sexiness and all round success.  The Benson and Hedges one 1973 reminds me of possibly the seediest chess book cover ever, Lev Alburts, three hundred positions chess players must know.  

That radio, damn. Of all the horrible things that came in 1972...

$129 buys you that JVC radio on ebay. 

The radio/chessboard is so off-the-wall, it's rather delightful. 

My favorite ad is the Martin-Denver long division one.

the text below the problem reads:

Clue: The sum of the digits of the divisor leaves a remainder of seven when divided by nine, and the sum of the digits of the quotient leaves a remainder of three when divided by nine.

so, I'm guessing the given problem has a solution?

yes and its way to difficult for my measly brain.

mine too.

Notice the ad for the "Ladies' Home Journal" shows the final position in the well-known Marshall-Pillsbury game from the famous Cambridge Springs Tournament of 1904.

I mean they all must be single digits right, less then or equal to nine. which means that the sum of the quotient cannot be greater than 36 and the sum of the divisor greater than 27. 

We already know one of the numbers of the quotient, 4 so the sum of the other three cannot be greater than 32.  Which numbers are divisible by nine with a remainder of three under 32?  that would by 30 and 21 and 12.  If we look at the divisor, it must be less than or equal to 27.  Which numbers under 27 are divisible by nine with a remainder of seven?  That would be 25 and 16.  Two of the divisors are the same.  If we take the smallest number divisible by nine with a remainder of seven (16) we realise that the rook must be less than nine because there are no other numbers which when taken together add up to sixteen ( not 1, not 2, not 3 and not 4) this means that the rook must be less than nine. If we assume a value of 8 for the rook then the only other numbers that the bishops can be are four.  It cannot be seven.  It could be six though assuming a value of 5 each for the bishops.  It cannot be five either. It could be four if we assume a value of six for the bishops and it could be two if we assume a value of 7 for the bishops.  So the rook could only be either 8, 6, 4 or 2.  I think.  its probably wrong though.

You lost me on "single digits."  :-D

She is the most powerful piece of the chessboard but vulnerable without her friends.  I saw a movie once where a man was getting his leg amputated old school style, you know, lots of whisky and biting a leather strap.  It might have been the American civil war or a pirate film, canny remember.   The Surgeon quipped that while it took six men to hold a man down it only took a single woman. 

Smoking and chess - natural bedfellows.

Your mention of beer made me realize I missed pasting and entire category -Alcohol!

Beer:

1942   Miller Beer

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1957  Miller Beer

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1967  Schlitz Beer

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1971  Rheingold Beer

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The Hard Stuff:

1936  Highland Queen Scotch Whisky

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1944 Walker's Deluxe Whiskey

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1946  Three Feathers Rye Whiskey

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1949  Highland Queen Scotch Whisky

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1950  Seagram's VO

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1953  Canadian Hunter Whiskey

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1954  Old Crow Whiskey

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1959  Henry Clay San Juan Puerto Rico Rum

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1960  Benedictine Liqueur

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1970  Cointreau Liqueur 

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1982  Bombay Gin

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1984  Bailey's Irish Cream

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1984  Hennessy Cognac

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2012 Grand Marnier Liqueur

I get them confused a lot too.

I deliberately omitted Mary Chess from these lists but Grace Mary Chess Robinson is covered here:

https://www.chess.com/blog/batgirl/the-sweet-smell-of-chess