Programma van het bezoek van de keizer Wilhelm II van Duitsland en keizerin aan Amsterdam van 1-3 juli 1891 1891 - 1897

This broadside was printed in Amsterdam in 1891, and the printing house is not explicitly mentioned. It advertises the visit of Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany and his empress. The piece relies on mass production. It is printed on paper, and the design is a dense accumulation of various advertisements, each vying for attention. There is a clear economic imperative here; the whole point was to generate commercial activity on the occasion of the royal visit. Note, too, that the price of the broadside itself is listed as 20 cents – making it a commodity in its own right. The overall effect of this piece is less about aesthetics and more about commerce. This challenges the traditional distinction between fine art and craft because it shows that sometimes, the purpose of art is simply to sell things. It reminds us that even official occasions were bound up with capitalist exchange.