Miniature
A miniature object with no apparent or particular function. Also, a fashionable accessory, such as a lapel pin, or a bag.
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Year: 1922
Quote: “AFFUTIAU, sb. m. 1. trinket, article of adornment. Les jeunes filles aiment les affutiaux, girls are fond of titivating. Des affutiaux comme en aiment les jeunes paysannes, just the sort of fal-lals peasent girls like. 2. Thing, gadget. Je ne sais plus le nom de cet affutiau, I don’t remember the name of that gadget.”
Author: Leroy, Oliver
Source: Leroy, Oliver
Year: 1928
Quote: “a miniature replica in bronze of the Egyptian Sphinx, save that it had a long, curved tail.” hieroglyphics on the sides. “Interesting gadget, he said.”
Author:
Source: Boys Life, 1928
Year: 1932
Quote: “The small trinkets sometimes known as ‘gallantries’ are a minor phase of eighteenth-century culture, but not without their significance. No material is more suitable than porcelain…”
Author: Schmidt, Robert and William Arnold Thorpe
Source: G.G. Harrap & Co., Ltd. 1932
Year: 1935
Quote: “Carole Lombard will have nary a jewel, never a wisp of ostrich, fringe or such clutter in her next film . . . you can’t miss allure if you follow Joan Crawford and sew all kinds and colors of silky hat flowers to a yard and a half of taffeta, and drape it over the shoulder to ward off sneezes when you step out to see how the moon is coming along . . . Smart gadget is Grace Moore’s cravat, a straight band of dress material, an inch and a half wide, tied in a flat knot, and used on both evening and sport things.”
Author:
Source: Hollywood, July 1935
Year: 1935
Quote: “You can run over to the Brown Derby any day at lunch time and see Gail in another gadget that only she could get away with gracefully. It is a little black felt coal scuttle she uses for a hat. Nothing goes to a girl’s head quicker than a new hat, and the latest Hollywood crop is shamefully intoxicating. They are the cherries in the spring wardrobe cocktails.”
Author: Hill, Gertrude
Source: Movie Classic, March 1935
Year: 1935
Quote: “Glamour—just how much is it worth to the everyday girl? Should one try to follow the suggestions one reads? “It’s just a gadget!” Kay’s voice rang out explicitly. “Physical glamour, a surface asset, is a nice quality to have. But too great an emphasis has been put on it.” [. . .] “There are various gadgets which enhance our lives,” Kay opined, flipping a saucy cigarette ash onto a dictionary. ”Their duty is to make our lives more colorful. Glamour is merely one of these accessories. There are times when it’s fun.””
Author: Francis, Kay
Source: Picture Play Magazine
Year: 1935
Quote: “Candid and genuine Luise Rainer, the most skilled player to debut on our screens for some time, scored a big success in “Escapade.” Then the dress and gadget manufacturers started complaining. / “This girl just can’t be the outstanding success of the year. She can’t launch fashions. She’s too natural, too unassuming,” they said. It was bad enough to have Elisabeth Bergner of the casual clothes dominate the stage last winter. Stylists feel that the screen must give them a Harlow, a Crawford, or a wind-swept Hepburn on whom to hang the coming season’s fashions.”
Author: Hollis, Karen
Source: Picture Play Magazine
Year: 1938
Quote: “The junk-jewelry and charm-bracelet fad proved such a gold mine for gadget manufacturers that spring finds them marketing an extraordinary new crop of decorative objects for women’s wear. ‘Lapel gadgets’ is what they are called and the industry considers them a ‘hot item.’ Although the season has just begun, manufacturers report that lapel ornaments already account for 35% of their sales of ‘junk.’ […] Most imaginative of the lapel-gadget designers is Martha Sleeper, vivacious young stage and screen actress who plays minor rolls in Hollywood. Miss Sleeper designed the steer’s skull below, obviously inspired by Georgia O’Keefe’s paintings.”
Author:
Source: LIFE. Apr 4, 1938
Year: 1939
Quote: “A year ago women wore onions in their coat lapels. This spring college girls wore carrots in their hair. This summer it looks as if women will wear glass umbrellas, jugs, fruit, birds and question marks in their ears. The glass earrings on this page are made by Marianna von Allesch, decorator and glass blower, and are now sold all over the country for about $2.95.”
Author:
Source: LIFE. Jul 10, 1939.
Year: 1943
Quote: “…the boys in uniform have made bracelets, belts, necklaces, lapel gadgets, salt and pepper shakers, buckles…”
Author:
Source: Recreation. vol. 37. 1943. p. 24
Year: 1945
Quote: “Glamorous Gadgets: The formal bag gives one the opportunity to indulge in a bit of whimsy. As stated before, it should be small, and it may be frivolous. For that reason a little bag of unusual character will be described here.” (124). “…eyelet embroidery of raisins or any other decoration one’s fancy might dictate. Interesting textures or designs can be made with the tines of a fork, toothpick or any other gadget found in the kitchen that would leave an interesting impression when pressed in the dough.” (265)”
Author: Cox, Doris E. and Barbara Warren Weismann
Source: Creative Hands: An Introduction to Craft Techniques. Wiley: 1945
Year: 1955
Quote: “Orville Goerger is Copy Director of Commerical Letter, Inc., a St. Louis mail-advertising agency. But in addition to carrying on his regular work, he plays an important part in many ‘extracurricular activities’ that manifest his deep interest in direct mail. He is also guest lecturer on direct-mail copy at Washington University and St. Louis University; contributor of direct-mail articles to various trade publications; creator of award-winning gadget campaigns in the Direct-mail Advertising Association’s annual competition; member of the Board of Governors, Advertising Club of St. Louis; and Chairman of the Skit-Writing Committee for the Advertising Club’s annual Gridiron Dinner” (210). “All too often the direct-mail user planning a gadget mailing spends most of his planning time looking for a gadget that is new, different, and unusual. / Yet mere newness is not always a guarantee of resultfulness. Nor is the complexity or elaborate nature of the gadget any measure of the success it will achieve. Indeed, in many cases, best results are obtained when a relatively old idea is dug out and re-used. / “This may be a bit hard to believe in these days when many of the new letter gadgets rival the atom bomb in their complexity. There are rubber-band-powered butterflies that spring out of a letter when it is opened, secret chemical processes that do magical things to a mailing piece when water is applied, Rube Goldberg mechanisms that build elaborate pop-ups when the mailing is unfolded–and literally hundreds of others. All are ingenious and do attract a large degree of attention. / Yet, surprisingly enough, their effectiveness is sometimes less than that of a relatively simple gadget like, for example, a burnt match. Both in the cost of the gadget and in the result it secures, the simple gadget frequently outscores its more expensive and elaborate brother. / Perhaps the reason for this is that the idea behind the gadget’s use is more important than the gadget itself [ital. in original]. In fact, a too elaborate gadget will usually overpower the copy; the reader remembers the gadget, but the message of the mailing piece may never register with him. / One cardinal rule for using a gadget is to keep the gadget secondary in importance to the theme of the mailing piece. It is obviously difficult to do this when the gadget you are using is deliberately designed to dominate the mailing. / Another good rule for gadget usage is to keep the gadget merely a stepping stone into the copy. A good gadget is one that provides an interesting introduction to your message; it is a master of ceremonies whose duty it is to build up the real star of the show – your copy. A good gadget never steals the show from the star or makes that star seem insignificant by comparison. The more sensational you make your gadget, the more difficult you make it for your copy message to hold its own. / Usually both of these objectives can be achieved by using a gadget or novelty effect of a simple sort. When a simple gadget is used, you are literarily forced into developing a powerful idea for tying in your message. In most cases a powerful idea plus the appeal of a good gadget is almost certain to click.” The seven gadget ideas are: “a penny gadget,” literally a penny in the envelope; A piece of string, “One reason for its appeal is that it permits motion in the mailing; by fastening only one end of the string, the other end swings freely and catches the eye”; a feather; the “burnt-edge letter,” “while not strictly a gadget, the burnt-edge letter is so dramatic and so simple that it should not be overlooked when it fits your scheme”; cotton; postage stamp, so that “people are getting something for nothing”; miniature photograph”
Author: Goerger, Orville
Source: Clyde Winfield Wilkinson, ed. Writing for Business: Selected Articles on Business Communication. 1955.
Year: 1983
Quote: “Since their 19th-century heyday, they’ve made a few appearances at weddings and as costume novelties. Last year. however. they began to show up frequently at proms as well as at children’s beauty pageants and debutante balls.. Jim Douglass. who makes the gadgets at his House of Hoops Inc in Novato, Calif., says he sold nearly 50.000 hoops last year for $10 to $24 each. Patricia Green of Patricia Green Couture in Atlanta says she has sold 200 or so hoop skirts – in such styles as the “ Miss Scarlett “ and the “ Charleston “? to Saudi Arabians, who buy them mainly for their children. The hoop alone retails for between $30 and $15; with the skirt, the ensemble can cost $130 to $400.”
Author: Nazario, Sonia
Source: Wall Street Journal: 19830418