EDWARD PENFIELD (1866-1925) THE LAST OF THE KNICKERBOCKERS. Circa 1901.20x29 inches, 50¾x73½ cm. Carqueville Litho Co., Chicago.Condition B / B-: tears, creases and abrasions at edges, in image and along sharp vertical and horizontal folds. Paper. Matted and framed.A rare and wonderful work by Penfield that is exceptional for both its size and its content. "Although Penfield continued at Harper's as Art Editor until 1901, his poster series stops in 1899" (Designed to Persuade, p. 15). In all, he designed over 75 images advertising the periodical, each one small enough to hang in a store window. After his tenure with the magazine, Penfield went on to design advertisements for other publishers and manufacturers. "However, the scope of his career is not well-documented in this second phase, and the works of the first two decades of this century are more difficult to rediscover" (ibid, p. 17). This unusually-sized promotion for a novel features many of the images that Penfield used in his Harper's posters, such as the horse-drawn sleigh and the dapper figures. "Studying coach design and history was a favorite hobby [of the artist], and he later became a collector of these vehicles, and wrote about them for Outing magazine. The unfinished manuscript of a book on coaches survives among family papers" (ibid p. 13). Bustling street scenes also figure prominently in his work, such as the crowds of passersby in People We Pass, circa 1896, (Swann sale 2016, lot 84) and his poster for Adler Suits & Overcoats (Sale 2099, lot 124), which presents a very similar scene.