PERSPECTOGRAPH (Milton Bradley perspective drawing apparatus)

"Learn to draw easily with a PERSPECTOGRAPH...Twelve sample lessons and over fifty different objects - easily drawn with the new aid for everybody interested in perspective drawing"

Springfield, MA: Milton Bradley Co., 1940. First Edition. Very good. Portfolio of 13 plates, 9 x 12 inches, printed recto-only. Title plate with instructions + 12 lessons. Very Good with bumping to the corners, light soil to exterior. Lesson 9 has the perspective lines drawn on in pencil; others unmarked. Covers fold out to form an apparatus with two black rulers hinged at the outside panels. The center panel is lined with graduated rulers and slit in each corner so that paper can be secured. A few cards also include cutout patterns to build cubes and cones for practicing observational drawing.

The lessons emphasize architectural drafting, with basic perspective covered before introducing ellipses and curvilinear perspective. A simplified version of the centuries-old apparatus credited to Leonardo da Vinci, patented by art instructor Earl Brownjohn, who taught at Buffalo Technical High School and previously published Elementary Color: Its Theory and Application with Milton Bradley. The tool seems geared toward local students anticipating industrial arts employment, with reference to "Big City Gas Works" and Ford, which had a large factory in Buffalo. Practical, everyday drafting is also emphasized in lessons for home building and interior planning ("Nearly everyone has occasion at some time, to design an original house.") A rare example of the evidently limited production.