It's the perfect time of year to discover this decorative paper sheet with spiders and their webs bound in the Struco Slate architectural trade catalog from 1930. Judging from the rest of the collection, using decorative paper was relatively unusual in trade catalogs, which were targeted advertisements directed toward those in the building professions. The expense of a beautiful, finely crafted blank sheet of paper would seem superfluous to many companies, but perhaps the designers at the Strucural Slate Company felt it distinguished their catalog from the others.
The leaf is a translucent white. We placed orange paper behind the delicate paper to highlight the intricate webbing details and the spider at the center of its web.
Images: Struco slate and its application with modern architecture, 1930. Trade Catalog Collection, Drawings + Documents Archive, Ball State University. Photo by Carol Street.
