Featured Victorian trade cards

Thought I'd share some Victorian trade cards I've had, all circa 1880s. These are advertising cards that were given away by businesses.

They were all printed using chromolithography, a relatively inexpensive process that made multi-color printing affordable for the first time.

Some trade cards were designed and produced for a particular company or product, while others were generic cards that companies purchased and imprinted with their own info. Some are humourous, some educational, and some have really beautiful images. Below are a few favorites of mine.

I love the image on the front of this card....



And the typography on the back...

 

The image on this card is so sweet, and it was very well executed...

 

This is one of my favorites, with the quality of a fine painting...

 

And now for something completely different...

 

That last one is hysterical! But I love the graphics on all of them.

So you're a collector?

 

These are great! -- Sounds like you know a lot about them.

I'm also wondering if you collect them, and if so -- is there a focus to the collection, or is it just aesthetic preference?

 

Ah, I'm not so much a collector now as a storer and sometimes seller. These days I'm not buying anything... got too much of all sorts of things and trying to figure out what to do with it all!

I inherited a few Victorian scrap albums 14 years ago, which was my first introduction to the cards. It piqued my interest and I purchased more albums and cards on eBay and tried to learn what I could about them.

Trade cards helped fuel the scrapbooking craze in the late 1900s since they were free and fun. Most scrap albums I've seen from the era are filled with trade cards, one-sided greeting cards, small prints, die-cut scrap pieces, etc.

As far as I can tell, the most valuable ones usually have themes like sports, politics, etc. My favorites usually are the ones that are the most aesthetically pleasing, though. Not worth a lot, but I love them anyway.

 

Beautiful trade cards. The colors and graphics are still so crisp.

I noticed on the Marseilles White Soap (back) packaging that the soap came in 3/4 lb. cakes. I did a little research and found that Ivory Soap came out with Ivory Snow in "flake" form in 1930.

As a young child I would stay with Grandma and Grandpa for a week or so at a time several times during each summer. Grandma would take a small knife and cut a bar of Ivory soap into long(ish) strips for the inevitable late-afternoon/before-supper baths she gave me in the big old claw-foot bathtub.

Thanks for jogging my memory about days long gone but never truly forgotten.

 

How do your "store" them, Pat? Is there a particular kind of envelope that works and also gives you a view of what's inside?

I ask because I am seriously considering taking apart my Grandmother's childhood postcard album. The old black pages are starting to crumble and the little slits to put the corners in are coming apart. I hate the idea of having to do it, but every time I take one out to look at the back to see when it was sent or who sent it I end up with more little pieces of black paper.

 

Thanks, yourturntoloveit, for sharing your story. I think that's what's so wonderful about old things, the way they connect us to the past.

 

Bakersgma, I have a collection of antique and vintage postcards as well as trade cards. The paper in old albums isn't acid free, so taking items out of the albums is probably better for them anyway.

I put most of my postcards and cards in acid-free plastic sleeves and then insert them in new photo albums.

I like these sleeves since they're acid-free, lightweight, and very clear...
http://www.the2buds.com/suslsoft.htm

They albums I've used the most are like these, which are inexpensive and easy to store since they're small...

http://www.amazon.com/BIGGEST-LITTLE-A4-100-Various-covers/dp/B00160A4MM/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1405050411&sr=8-5&keywords=4x6 photo album

 

Bakersgma, just an idea but this may be a way to enjoy (almost simultaneously) the fronts and backs of the postcards in your Grandmother's childhood postcard album.

One more time take out the cards. Make a photocopy of the backs of the cards (arranged on a photocopier as they are arranged in the album, top to bottom, left to right). Put a notation on the photocopy of the back as to which postcard it was written on and which page(s) (if they're numbered) of the album they are on. Then fasten the numbered sheets of photocopy paper together and keep that "index/guide" to the backs of the postcards with the album.

 

Here's another funny trade card, this one for an ice cream maker...

 

Here's one for a quack medicine cure...

 

Those look like a lot of fun -- I love how kids are used so often in advertising. I'm rather tired of our air-brushed, photoshopped beauties...

 

I CAN FIX A ROCKFORD WATCH

 

Could this be called a trading card?

or something else?

4-1/4 by 6-1/2 inhes

 

Terry -
Looks like a promotion card for Lion Coffee sold by Woolson Spice Co.

Found this
http://www.city-data.com/forum/ohio/266394-woolson-spice-company.html

 

Hi Terry,
Where did you find a baby picture of Afantiques working on his clock collection?
greg

 

This is AF paying for his clock collection...