Montgomery Ward & Co. Catalogue No. 101, Fall and Winter, 1924 – 25

Chicago, Ill: Montgomery Ward & Co., 1924. Softcover. First edition; 13 ¼ x 9; pp. 724; illustrated wraps; chips with some loss of paper to edges; fore-edge of pages a bit brittle; darkening and staining to upper corner; illustrated in b & w and color; good to very good condition.A massive catalog, known as the “Wish Book,†of the self-proclaimed “most progressive and oldest†mail order house, it was published in the last year of its dry-goods, mail-order-only business model, before the first retail outlet store was opened in Plymouth, Indiana in 1926. Founded in 1872 by Aaron Ward, the business was demolished before and reestablished after the Great Chicago Fire, became known for the, then, revolutionary “satisfaction guaranteed, or your money back†policy, and was nominated by the Grolier Club as one of the 100 books to influence the life and culture of US Americans. Known for their reasonable prices and enormous, lavishly-illustrated catalogs, the company would also be remembered for creating the Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer character as part of a promotional Christmas campaign in 1939.