New Specimen Book
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 catalogue never describes the product, it performs it - the specimen is a demonstration proof where the sample and the sales argument are physically the same object. Sizes run small to large down the page so the eye falls into the biggest, most expensive cut last, which is the standard ascending-ladder tactic applied to a price list. The nonsense setting lines (CHEEK, OR CHIN, KNUCKLE OR Knee?) are doing real work: they force the buyer to read the face as words rather than an alphabet, and the odd humour makes an otherwise identical page memorable enough to be found again. Putting the price and the character count on the same line as the sample collapses want and cost into one glance, so there is no second step between admiring and ordering.
Steal this when
Steal this when your product is the sample - fonts, materials, finishes, paper stock, paint, any catalogue where the buyer is choosing by eye and the specification is a number. The move to copy is one item per page, shown at working size, with the price and the spec set on the same line as the sample so nothing has to be looked up.