Featured The Prudential Insurance Company 1889 Calendar

I found this in my mothers hope chest. I have tried to find information on with no luck. Hoping someone has seen one before. Only one I can find is in the museum of insurance.

 

very nice !!!

 

It looks like it's in good shape, and would probably appeal to a calendar collector. One advantage of calendars is they usually include the date!

The images are probably chromolithographs ("chromos"), which were popular at that time. Chromolithography was the first process that allowed inexpensive mass-production of images in color and it took off like wild fire in the 1880s.

If they are chromos, under a loupe you'll see dots that are irregular sizes and shapes. If by any chances any of the images are signed by the artist, the value of the calendar might increase, depending upon the artist.

 

Very nice image for a calendar. I'm curious though about it's apparently very good condition. I wonder whether the calendar was reproduced at some point. Certainly your mother was not yet born in 1889, was she?

 

I looked for repops and couldn't find anything on that either. The calendar was actually my grandmothers moms and has been passed down through the family according to my mother.

 

Thank you so much for the info at least I have something to look for. I will post anything I might find.

 

Ah. Interesting that multiple generations liked it so much that it was never damaged. Not that it isn't worthy of admiration - it absolutely is. But it looks like it was never out of the chest.

 

Is there any printing info on it anywhere?

 

Found another one, not in the Museum.

https://www.collectorsweekly.com/stories/166186-1889-prudential-insurance-calendar-pris

 

That was where I first started I just couldn't believe something of that age could be in that excellent shape. I did get it out and I do not see any kind of signature or markings of any kind.

 

Gezzz how did you come across that? I searched for days LOL.

 

Kept going past the first page of results on Google.

 

Ah, but in addition to things being handed down, inherited items from a collector can include lots of things older than the collector. I know from experience with all the 19th century stuff my mom had.

 

Interesting that the one in the collector's weekly link is also in "pristine condition" and even mentions that they hope it isn't a "repro". Were these tear-off calendars a thing in the late 1800's? This just looks to be in such amazing condition.

If it was mine, I'd ask myself, does the paper feel 120 years old in the hand? I am no expert in these, but I know repros of other antique decorative items like this were popular in the 70s. I guess I'd want to do a bit more research. It's a fantastic image either way. Hope it is the real deal!

 

That's my concern as well, Lucille. Seems to me that if someone (in this case, Monte's great grandmother) liked it enough to keep it, she would have done so for the image. And when you keep something for the image, don't you want to see it on a regular basis? You hang it where you can smile at it or you frame it and hang it where you can smile at it. You don't stick it in a drawer or a chest so it stays "perfect" but you never get to see it to smile at. At least that's my thinking. Your mileage may vary.

 

I agree that it could be a reproduction. If looked at under a loupe there are very small uniformly-sized and shaped dots in the images, that's an indication that it's a repro.

Baker's, there are a gazillion items that my mother, and me in turn, have liked enough for what they look like to keep but are stored away. Prints, postcards, cards, all sorts of ephemera. Some framed original and repro prints, too. I wouldn't have enough wall space to display them all!

 

And/or family memories are sometimes mistaken. If my mother saw this she'd probably assume it was from an ancestor, due to the printed date. Not saying that is the case here, but not impossible.

 

It looks like a cover sheet over the calendar has been removed. Is that the case? A reproduction would likely say so somewhere. Have you searched all the pages for mice type? And can you share the link to the "museum of insurance?"

Debora

 

removed to rewrite

 

I've had genuinely old paper items where the paper didn't age all that much and still looked fairly white and fresh. Not most items, but some. The paper used and how an item was stored can make a big difference.

The year in the calendar is "1889." If this were a repro, wouldn't the date have been the current year? And as Debora said, I think the new publisher's info would appear somewhere.

I doubt it would be created to be a fake antique, either. The value isn't all that high, and the cost of designing, printing, and distributing would eat up most of the profit.

My $0.02, anyway.