Silent salesman.
Silent salesman is a 1900 trade catalogue issued in Toronto by the wholesale firm Gordon, Mackay & Co, aimed at merchants and mail-order buyers of fashion goods. Its pictures are small pen-and-ink and halftone drawings of women's dress, hats, bonnets and handbags, drawn with loose hatching and simple flat shading. A designer might take the period silhouettes, such as the high-necked blouse with a full gored skirt and the ribbon-trimmed bonnet, as references for Edwardian or Victorian-revival costume.
