Sales/Advertising Sample for Triumphant Life Calendar

Indianapolis: Kriebel and Bates, 1953. First edition. Loose_leaf. Very Good. 4 3/4 x 6 1/4 inches. Front: "Head of Christ" by iconic Protestant Painter Warner E. Sallman, the original of which (1952) is in a private collection. Rear: Ordering information. Neat horizontal fold. By far the most popular of Sallman’s pictures, the Head of Christ has been reproduced more than 500 million times according to its publishers (Kriebel & Bates). Anthony Kriebel and Fred Bates, employees of the Gospel Trumpet Company of Anderson, Ind., arranged to market the image late in 1940. Reproductions subsequently carried their imprimatur and the copyright date of 1941. Chicago Offset Printing Company printed the image in a six-color separation lithographic process that preserved what many admirers consider unique about the picture: its radiant, incandescent glow. During the years of the Second World War, one press at Chicago Offset continuously printed the Head of Christ under the operation of two shifts of laborers.In a document written in 1945, the publishers indicate that by the previous year a total of 14 million single pictures had been printed. One run of the image, which required three to four weeks to complete from start to finish, consisted of 5,000 sheets and included a variety of sizes of the Head of Christ, ranging from 20 x 16 to 3 ½ x 2 ½ inches. Several runs were already completed in 1941. By 1944, the market supported increasing the size of individual prints to 40 x 30 inches for large images to be used in public spaces such as churches and YMCAs.The image was marketed in an inexpensively framed format; as cards bearing devotional texts; and on greeting cards, church bulletins, clocks, lamps, buttons, and funeral announcements to name only a few examples. Sales catalogs and promotional literature advertised Sallman’s principal paintings each year. The Head of Christ became the virtual trademark of Kriebel & Bates and so quickly found public acceptance that the publishers encouraged Sallman to use the head as frequently as possible in other depictions of Christ. The artist complied by duplicating the head in other images, rotating it to reveal more of the face, and reversing it as in Christ Our Pilot.