Old Taylor Bourbon — Fortune, May 1952
In the May 1952 issue of Fortune, the Old Taylor Distillery Company of Louisville, Kentucky ran this advertisement for Old Taylor Straight Kentucky Bourbon Whiskey — bottled in bond, 100 proof. The illustration, signed by Pierre Brissaud, shows a hand holding the one-pint bottle forward so the yellow label fills the frame: "The Old Taylor Distillery Company," the 100-proof statement, and the distillery's Louisville imprint all legible. Brissaud, the French illustrator whose elegant work appeared in Fortune and in Paris couture publications, gives the whiskey the visual language of luxury goods. The advertisement belongs to the postwar bourbon market's pitch to the Fortune reader — whiskey as an emblem of established American taste.
Category: Alcohol
Year: 1952
Rarity Class: B
Paper & Print Condition
Magazine advertisement detail — a color halftone reproduction on coated periodical stock. The bottle's amber glass, the yellow label's fine print, and Brissaud's signature remain legible; the halftone rosette is visible under magnification. The sheet margin carries the issue marker "Fortune, May 1952" with page number 23. Light age-toning consistent with bound-issue storage. The sheet is complete and flat.
Provenance & Rarity
Publication provenance (bibliographic): Fortune, May 1952, p. 23 (stated on the sheet margin). Illustrator: Pierre Brissaud (signed). Distiller: The Old Taylor Distillery Company, Louisville, Kentucky. Chain of custody: from the collection of Ronin Naodhinsuk; photographed for The Record Institute archive. Rarity — Class B (provisional): a mass-circulation magazine advertisement; Brissaud-illustrated American whiskey advertising is a narrow and collectible intersection.
Rarity & Condition Summary
Class B artifact in Good condition: label detail and signature legible, issue marker intact. Its significance is as a 1952 specimen of bourbon advertising aimed at the business elite, executed by a major French illustrator — and as a document of the bottled-in-bond whiskey category at mid-century.
