Austen’s Forest Flower Cologne Trade Card

Girl in Hat tc1Girl in Hat tc2

Someone had evidently cropped and saved this trade card just for the charming girl in the straw hat drawing. At the time of posting this entry, the whole card comes up for sale on eBay, and that one shows that above the drawing are the words “Perfumed With Austens” and below the drawing “Forest Flower Cologne.” The address on the back of the card shows up under a list of druggists on a website regarding old bottles (cool site.) The address is for W. F. Phillips & Company, wholesale druggist….And what an intriguing name for a perfume, “Austen’s Forest Flower Cologne.” This cologne was manufactured by W. J. Austen & Company, of Oswego, New York, and as evidenced above, was advertised as “The Most Fashionable Perfume of the Day.” (Some cards show “The Most Fashionable and Lasting Perfume of the Day.”) The word and symbol for “Forest Flower” was registered by W. J. Austen in September of 1878, according to an entry in “New Remedies, An Illustrated Monthly Trade Journal,” a publication of the day for American druggists.

Sources:  http://www.bottlebooks.com/Wholesale%20Druggists/WD%20P.html

http://books.google.com. New Remedies, An Illustrated Monthly Trade Journal of Materia Medica, Pharmacy and Therapeutics. Vol. 7, page 370. Fred’k A. Castle, M.D., Editor and Charles Rice, Associate Editor. William Wood & Company, Publishers, New York 1878.

Handsome Sailors

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Real Photo Postcard with white border, unused. AZO stamp box, circa 1918 – 1930.

Price:  $7.00

Great photo, a little blurry but really nice content of two guys on board some type of vessel, grinning for the camera. Both wear hats but the hat insignia is not very clear. You can see that the eagles’ heads are facing to the guys’ left, and the eagles’ outstretched wings are quite a bit lower than the heads of the eagles. I am not finding this same design in online searches. The insignia most closely resembles that of the U.S. Navy, but we wouldn’t want to assume that these guys were Navy, for sure. You can see the star on the jacket sleeve of the guy on the left; a good detail that should help in the i.d. process. For now we have more questions than answers, so this is one for the “needs more research” category.

Brother and Sister

Brother and Sister pc1Brother and Sister pc2

Divided back, Real Photo Postcard, unused, with Kruxo stamp box. Circa 1908.

Price:  $10.00

This is a beauty. Blurry, with some damage to the photo showing on the girl’s dress, and an imperfection with the line at the top of the border, but still a great photo for capturing a moment. I love how neither one was looking at the camera, and they are both looking in different directions. The expressions for both of them are just gorgeous, and the girl’s outfit, especially with the hat, make this photo a real charmer. I think they must be brother and sister, because they so closely resemble each other.

What A Hat!

What a Hat

Oval miniature photo on cardboard matting, circa 1880s – 1890s.

Price:  $5.00        Size including matting:  2 x 3″

Another miniature photo found in Salinas, California (I think.) Woman in feathered hat, possibly ostrich. The size including the cardboard mat is 2 inches wide x 3 inches high. The photo itself measures about 2/3 of an inch wide x almost 1 inch tall. The original photo is clear, but impossible to get the clarity in the scan unless we were to remove the photo from the cardboard. It’s highly unlikely that a name was put on the back of the photo.