Tricks of the trade card
John M. Wing Foundation printing ephemera collection
Trade cards—perhaps best described as a mash-up of a business card and advertisement—were popular throughout the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries. The Newberry holds about two dozen collections of such cards, including specimens from England, Belgium, France, and America....
Trade cards also offer a window onto pre-Mad-Men-era marketing strategies (or lack thereof). The choice of text and imagery could be a bit random—questionable, even. For example, the Leipig Company used a passage from Hamlet in an advertisement for their Meat Extract; in retrospect, it seems a rather dubious decision to associate a food product with a scene describing poison.
Another trade card advertising cough syrup shows children preparing the medicine by heating two kittens in a skillet. With its strange mix of Victorian sentimentality and (hopefully) dark humor, the card nevertheless endorses two universal truths: cats are like medicine and children should generally be supervised in the kitchen...
Advertising trade cards, 1860-1905
Read the full post by Jill Gage, the Newberry's Custodian of the John M. Wing Foundation on the History of Printing and Bibliographer for British Literature and History
Browse uncataloged 😶 trade cards at Newberry Digital Collections
Help to catalog 😀 trade cards at Postcard Tag, our crowdsourcing project
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Dii Consentes Goddesses
Trade cards from the "Goddesses of the Greeks and Romans" series (N188), issued in an unnumbered set of 50 cards in 1889 by W.S. Kimball & Co. (The Metropolitan Collection, Public Domain)
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Illustration of two kittens wearing bonnets and sitting and sewing. Verso side: text,"Truth New York has on exhibit in the show window of Collins' Japanese store,$1,500 in presents to be given free to lucky guessers. Go in now and guess!."
Brooklyn Public Library, Fulton Street Trade Cards
Digital Culture of Metropolitan New York
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APPERSON AUTOMOBILE Co.
ART-DECO NEW ORLEANS
Oversized trade card for. APPERSON AUTOMOBILE COMPANY Of NEW ORLEANS , located at 618 Baronne street ( building still there )
Apperson was a brand of American cars of the brass era , manufactured in Kokomo, Indiana from 1901 to 1926 . America’s First Sports cars with models like the “Jack Rabbit “ with a price of $ 4,250 in 1910 and the “ Big Dick “ with a tag price of $ 7,500 in 1907 .
A great piece for the automobilia collector and New Orleans history buff.
Frame and display.
Item No. E4938-137
Dimensions: 6 1/4” x 3 5/8”
SOLD
504.581.3733 / t
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These storage box thingies with the magnetic lids are close to perfect for old postcards and trade cards if you can find the ones with the right depth — TJ Maxx had three sizes.
Dagnabbit on the pretty floral design tho.
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French Art Nouveau Trade Card
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The card is a toy enclosed in each wrapped loaf of Dolly Madison Bread. The Mother Goose verse "To market, to market, to buy a fat pig" is the image caption.
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Pokémon TCG SV 151 (2023) Dragonair illustration by rika (removed card text)
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The Three Fates
Trade cards from the "Goddesses of the Greeks and Romans" series (N188), issued in an unnumbered set of 50 cards in 1889 by W.S. Kimball & Co. (The Metropolitan Collection, Public Domain)
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Trade card with cat and paint palette, Compliments of Rothschild's One Price Clothing and Merchant Tailoring House, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 1880-1910
Hennepin County Library, James K. Hosmer Special Collections Library
Minnesota Digital Library
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