Drink Coca-Cola 5 cents" - chromolithograph advertising poster (1890s)
The pattern
This still is filed under Price-anchoring offer.
Define
A higher reference number is shown first so the real price reads as a concession, not as a starting bid.
Mechanism
People judge a price against the first number they see. The anchor must be a real comparison or it collapses.
Verdict
We have a credible reference the buyer will accept
Why it works
The selling device is borrowed status: nothing is claimed about the taste, and the aspiration in the clothes, pearls and plumes does the work a product claim would otherwise have to do. The price and the command are kept out of the painted scene and placed inside a mirror-frame prop standing on the table, so the artwork stays a portrait while still carrying the offer - the sales line is an object in the picture rather than an interruption of it. The drink is shown served in a branded footed glass, which teaches the fountain trade the serving ritual at the same time as it advertises to the customer.
Steal this when
Use this when the product is cheap, undifferentiated and consumed in public: buy the aspiration around the moment of use, and park the price inside a small device in the scene rather than across the artwork.