A Specimen of Printing Types and Ornaments from the Baltimore Type Foundry
The pattern
This still is filed under Specimen as proof.
Define
A specimen (type, material, finish) is shown so the product proves itself under comparison.
Mechanism
Controlled display. Same conditions, side by side, no adjective required. The sample is the sentence.
Verdict
Buyers choose by eye or by hand and we can put the real thing in front of them.
Why it works
The book sells by inventory-as-demonstration. Every assertion in the front notice, that the faces are the approved fashions and that machine casting finishes better than hand casting, becomes testable the moment the reader turns the page, so verification and persuasion happen in the same motion. Setting the price flush beside each cut and each rule, rather than in a separate list at the back, converts browsing directly into specifying an order. Rotating the display pages forces a physical handling of the book that makes the big faces read as posters rather than as samples. Repeating the foundry name and the agent's name on every single page means no page can be torn out for the composing room without carrying the source and the ordering route with it.
Steal this when
Use this structure when the buyer can judge your product by looking at it: make the catalogue itself the demonstration, price each item where it sits, and keep the argument to one short notice at the front. Steal the foot line specifically when your pages will be torn out, forwarded or pinned up, so any single escaped page still names you and tells the reader how to order.