Montgomery Ward Wallpaper Catalog and Sample Book

Chicago: Montgomery Ward & Co., Inc., 1943. Softcover. First edition; 9 x 7 1/2; pp. [1], 4-84; illustrated wraps; small loss of paper to head of spine; thin cut to bottom edge; lower corner of several of the leaves clipped (as published); very good condition.A wartime edition, with a caveat added that: "Wallpaper Books use valuable dyes, inks and paper stock - the Government has issued a limitation order to conserve these critical materials for war use...This Wallpaper Sample Book will undoubtedly be the only edition that we can offer to our customers for the duration. Will you, therefore, please co-operate with us by returning this Catalog after it has served your purpose, so that other Ward customers may share the use of it with you?" The mail order company was founded by Aaron Montgomery Ward in 1872 and is still in existence today. Despite the war restrictions, the catalog contained a dazzling array of wallpaper sheets - embossed, painted, gilded, and textured. Also, fittingly, "patriotic colors in stripes" were offered.