Next Edition: Art for the Home

Thursday, August 24, 2006

If your walls cry out for sleek, chic or tongue-in-cheek decor, look no further than http://www.condenastart.com/ . The publishing giant's Web site is selling illustrations and photos that made bygone issues of House & Garden, Vogue, Gourmet, Vanity Fair and Mademoiselle magazines such visual treats.

Or if you prefer your art on a sofa or bed, consider having a magazine cover print transferred onto a throw pillow.

First, the New Yorker magazine started selling covers and cartoons through its Cartoon Bank. Then its parent company, Conde Nast, began offering art from its other periodicals published from 1910 through the 1950s. The most popular are Gourmet covers by Henry Stahlhut, whose iconic lobster pot remains "one of the favorites," says Cory Scott Whittier, Cartoon Bank vice president. Works by Eduardo Garcia Benito, a fashion illustrator who did Vogue and Vanity Fair covers, are also big sellers.

Prices range from $125 for a small, matted print to $350 for a large, framed image. Or be frugal and drop $30 on a box of 20 notecards and pop one on the wall. All are available at http://www.condenastart.com/ . Pillows, which cost $225 in leather and $96 in faux suede, can be printed with any image found at http://www.cartoonbank.com/ but must be ordered by phone, 888-728-4021.

Annie Groer


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