Category Archives: Trade Cards and Advertising

Mellier’s High Class Perfumes

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Trade card, Oberdeener’s Pharmacy and Mellier’s Perfumes. Circa 1889 – 1901.

Price:  $15.00          Size:  4 and 1/2 x 3″

A lovely trade card in blue, pink and yellow showing a ladies shoe, a fan, a flower, a butterfly and a paper memento of some sort, resting in a large sea shell. This particular design was not the only one with this theme. There is another to be found for sale online showing a yellow shoe facing in the opposite direction. Mellier’s, based out of St. Louis, Missouri, was very prolific in creating fragrances over the years. We’ve counted a total of eighty, found on the web, including one called Ping Pong (!) The titles shown on this card are:

Ascension Lily, Sweet Crab Apple, Favorita, Violet Bouquet, Bon Silene Rose, Lilac Spray, Golden Pansy, Arabian Nights, Peach Blossom and Allien Bouquet (sometimes seen as Allen Bouquet).

The advertiser on the trade card was S. Oberdeener, of Santa Clara, California, who stated,  “We can confidently recommend – Mellier’s ‘High-Class’ Perfumes – and will take pleasure in showing our patrons how closely they imitate the natural flower and how they possess at the same time both wonderful delicacy and great permanence.”

1038 Franklin Street, Santa Clara, CA

Samuel Oberdeener, per Find A Grave, son of Moses and Libby Oberdeener, was born in San Francisco, September 14, 1860 and died May 20, 1901 in Santa Clara, California. He was married to Emma Lauck. They had one daughter, Mildred. Sam Oberdeener was a graduate of the California College of Pharmacy in 1880, a member of the State Board of Pharmacy, Board of Town Trustees and an active member in the Masonic order, the Odd Fellows, Elks and Foresters. Oberdeener’s would have been well-known in the area, at the time of Sam’s passing, the store had been in business for over thirty years, Samuel having taken over from his father in 1882.

Dating the trade card

All of the perfume titles listed on the trade card, with the exception of Peach Blossom, were found advertised in The American Drug Clerks Journal, January 1889, Vol. 3. (A date for Peach Blossom was not located.) And since Samuel Oberdeener died in 1901, we would estimate this card to be from about 1889 to 1901. The pharmacy continued for some years after Samuel’s death. Below, an ad from the 1913 Santa Clara directory:

Sources:  “Dr Samuel Oberdeener” Find A Grave. http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi.

“Dr. Samuel Oberdeener.” Los Angeles Times, May 21, 1901. Tuesday, p. 5. (Newspapers.com).

The American Drug Clerks Journal, January 1889, Vol. 3.(Google.com).

Polk-Husted Directory Co.’s, San Jose City and Santa Clara, 1913-14, p. 470. Ancestry.com. U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995.

George A. Drew’s Jewelry Store Trade Card

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Trade card, 1882 – 1883, Lewiston, Maine.

Price:  $12.00      Size:  2 and 1/2 x 4 and 1/2″

I was picturing someone searching the web for a photo or illustration of this jeweler’s store, thinking they’d found it, all excited, only to find this trade card (beautiful though it is and a wonderful find.) Hence, the long post title (which made me think of Bob Dylan’s lyric, “It’s your brand new leopard-skin pill-box hat.” Goofy sometimes, the associations we come up with 🙂 ).

The front of the card shows an illustration of a young woman in bathing attire with hand shading brow and looking off into the distance, alongside the title of “Old Reliable.”  I’m thinking it must have been second nature to the artists that designed trade cards, but note the nice 3-D effect on this one with the insert of the girl, and overlapping that, the insert for the jeweler (associating himself with the term “Old Reliable”) and then the artistically arranged cutting of some type of flower draped over both (with shadows drawn in). The store’s address is given as  “No. 93 Lisbon Street, Lewiston, Me.”

Find the typo

The back advertises:  “George A. Drew, dealer in Watches, Diamons, Jewelry, Silver & Plated Ware, Spectacles & Eye-glasses. Sole Agent for Hand Engraved and Silver Plated ware, something new and beautiful, also Agent for Rock Crystal Spectacles, the best in the world. Fine Watch work a specialty, Watches Cleaned and Warranted for $1.00. 93 Lisbon St., Lewiston, ME.”

Reliable and reliably on Lisbon

George A. Drew was born in Maine, about 1836. On the 1870 Federal Census for Lewiston, he appears with his wife Alice and their children, Nellie and Fred. City directories for a twenty-year span, show five different addresses on Lisbon. Note the 1893 address below doesn’t match the one on the card.

1874 to 1880 at 83 Lisbon

1883 at 131 Lisbon

1885 to 1889 at 93 Lisbon

1891 at 75 Lisbon

1893-4 at 71 Lisbon

Sources:  Year: 1870; Census Place: Lewiston, Androscoggin, Maine; Roll: M593_536; Page: 182B; Family History Library Film: 552035. (Ancestry.com).

Greenough Jones & Co.’s Directory for Lewiston and Auburn, 1874-5, p. 170; W. A. Greenough & Co.’s Lewiston and Auburn Directory for 1883, p. 226; W. A. Greenough & Co.’s Lewiston and Auburn Directory, 1885, p. 215; W. A. Greenough & Co.’s Lewiston and Auburn Directory, 1889, p. 269; W. A. Greenough & Co.’s Lewiston and Auburn Directory, 1891, p. 286; W. A. Greenough & Co.’s Lewiston and Auburn Directory, 1893-4, p. 301. (Ancestry.com. U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995.)

Musical Variations

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Trade card, circa 1880s – 1890s. Lithographer:  Vallet, Minot & Co., Paris.

Price:  $5.00      Size:  About 2 and 9/16 x 4″

This cute trade card, of a Scottish Highlander playing the fiddle, was probably one of a series representing different countries.

There is no advertising on the back, which is not that unusual, but it was surprising (just upon closer scrutiny) to find that it had been printed in France. There’s the bold black lettering in English but enlarge the image to make out the words, Airs variés, and at the bottom left, the name of the lithography company, the first word of which appears to be Vallet, and their location, Paris…..A little time spent searching the web….et voila! C’est Vallet, Minot & Cie. Below, their nice logo showing a V over an M, which together almost looks like an insect, somewhat like a butterfly.

Livingston’s Perfection

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Trade card for Rice’s Seeds. Circa 1880 – 1881.

Price:  $12.00       Size:  4 and 1/2 x 2 and 5/8″

“Livingston’s Perfection (New). Warranted to produce ripe fruit in 100 days from the sowing of the seed.”

“Rice’s Seeds have spoken their own praise wherever planted for upwards of 40 years.”

Here’s a beauty (and incidentally sorry to say we missed a Memorial Day post due to working on another project and then running out of time and energy. Poor time management, alas! Next year, though.) But this beauty of a trade card shows an older couple, in their nightgowns and nightcaps, being awoken, to their joy, by a giant tomato, ripened to perfection, that has overflowed from the garden through their open window.

We find mention of Livingston’s Perfection, as early as 1881 and as late as 1918, in trade journals, so from this info and the word “new” in parentheses on the card’s tomato, one might infer both the card and, of course, the variety, to have emerged in 1881, or maybe 1880.

Who was Livingston?

From “Pomodoro!:  A History of the Tomato in Italy”:

“In Ohio between 1870 and 1893, Alexander Livingston, developed or improved thirteen major varieties for the tomato trade. He named most of them after himself, such as ‘Livingston’s Marvel’, ‘Livingston’s Magnus’, ‘Livingston’s Paragon’, and ‘Livingston’s Perfection.’ Some of these varieties eventually found their way to Parma, Italy, suited as they were to the production of concentrate.”

And Rice?

Rice was Jerome Bonaparte Rice, born in Salem, New York, July 19, 1841, son of Roswell Niles Rice and Betsy Ann (Hodges) Rice. He became hugely successful in the seed business which was started by his father around 1834 – selling seeds via wagon, which the younger Rice returned to, after coming home from the Civil War. A few other tidbits of information:  J. B.’s capture by the Confederate Army and imprisonment at Libby and Belle Isle led to rheumatism (no wonder) which later confined him to a wheelchair. He was “the father” of the Cambridge Valley Agricultural Society – the president of the Cambridge, New York fair, as shown in the illustrated ad below, and the 3-story mansion (which included a beautifully ornate “birdcage” style elevator) that he and his wife built (1902 – 1904) in Cambridge. The home had stood vacant in recent years, but was thankfully restored starting in 2004 and today serves as a historic inn currently available for group reservations. See Rice Mansion Inn. J. B. Rice died June 8, 1912, at the age of 70, leaving his wife Laura (Chandler) Rice, and their son and three daughters. Partial obit below, from The Poultney Journal (Poultney, VT) June 14, 1912:

See The Rice Seed Company – Cambridge, NY for more historical photos and information.

Clipped below from the Bennington Banner (Bennington, VT) for August 30, 1895, a charming ad for J. B. Rice’s Great Fair at Cambridge, NY.

Sources:  Gentilcore, David. (2010) Pomodoro!:  A History of the Tomato in Italy. NewYork:  Columbia University Press. (Google.com)

Memorial #37438546. Find A Grave. Find A Grave. http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi.

Libby Prison. n.d. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libby_Prison (accessed June 2, 2018).

Zombek, Angela. M. Belle Isle Prison. Encyclopedia Virginia. (accessed June 2, 2018).

Kumar, Anne. “Couple restores historic Rice mansion.” October 24, 2004. Sunday, pp. C1, C8. (Newspapers.com).

Rice Mansion Inn. (www.ricemansioninn.com). Accessed June 2, 2018.

The Poultney Journal (Poultney, VT). June 14, 1912. Friday, p. 3. (Newspapers.com).

The Rice Seed Company – Cambridge, NY. (www.cambridgephoto.com). Accessed June 2, 2018.

“Every Body’s Going This Year!” Bennington Banner (Bennington, VT) August 30, 1895. Friday, p. 5. (Newspapers.com).

A. H. Taylor, Pianos And Organs

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Trade Card. Salem, Massachusetts. 1880 – 1881.

Price:  $12.00         Size:  2 and 1/2 x 4 and 1/2″

“A. H. Taylor, Pianos And Organs, 293 Essex St., Salem, Mass.”

This could be the only surviving trade card for this company in existence, though that might be “doing it too brown” as they say in Regency terms. (I wonder if Georgette Heyer interspersed that era’s vocabulary into her own present-day conversation, and if so, what the response was, blank looks?) In any case, this is a charming card showing a young maid setting up for a small outdoor tea party.

A. H. Taylor was Albert H. Taylor, born about 1857 in Manchester, Massachusetts, son of John M. Taylor and Ann H. Lee. He married Cora B. Kenney June 11, 1879. The 1880 Federal Census for Salem, shows Albert’s occupation as piano tuner, and the household at that time was Albert, Cora and their one month old son, Albert H., living at 88 Federal St.

By 1900 they have another family member, Louis C, and the family is now in Bridgeport, Connecticut, at 111 Hicks St. Albert, Sr.’s occupation is listed as music dealer.

And by 1910, Albert and Cora have relocated to Springfield, Mass. Albert’s occupation appears to read as “com. traveler, pianos,”  so, commercial traveler or traveling salesman in the piano industry.

As for city directories, the 1881 for Salem lists A. H. Taylor at the 293 Essex St. address, under headings of Music Stores, Piano Dealers and Piano Tuners. Evidently, he ran an ad on the front cover of that directory, but the cover is missing. The 1879 directory shows a music store belonging to H. R. Perkins & Co., the 1880 directory wasn’t found and nothing shows for the 293 address after 1881 until 1888 (a house furnishing store). So, this trade card can pretty accurately be said to be from 1880 or 1881.

Sources:  Sampson, Davenport & Co.’s The Salem Directory for 1879, No. XVIII. p. 279. Ancestry.com. U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995.

Sampson, Davenport & Co.’s The New England Business Directory for 1881. pp. 284, 285 and 278. Ancestry.com. U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995.

Year: 1880; Census Place: Salem, Essex, Massachusetts; Roll: 532; Page: 686A; Enumeration District: 235. (Ancestry.com).

New England Historic Genealogical Society; Boston, Massachusetts. Ancestry.com. Massachusetts, Marriage Records, 1840-1915.

Year: 1900; Census Place: Bridgeport, Fairfield, Connecticut; Page: 11; Enumeration District: 0036. (Ancestry.com).

Year: 1910; Census Place: Springfield Ward 7, Hampden, Massachusetts; Roll: T624_593; Page: 19A; Enumeration District: 0649; FHL microfilm: 1374606.(Ancestry.com).

Lion Coffee Parallelogram

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Trade card, Lion Coffee. Circa 1882 – 1890s

Price:  $5.00

I like the effect of these two images together, as if you’re looking at a roof from above, and what a roof it would be! (although the front of the card should be upside down for that to really make sense.) But the background on this is just the back of a book (because we’re always searching for something handy to use when scanning odd-shaped cards.) The back reads:

“If you want a picture card like this buy a package of Lion Coffee. It is composed of a successful combination of Mocha, Java and Rio. And it is roasted with the greatest care, but is not ground. Is never sold in bulk. Beautiful picture in every package. Lion is the king of coffees. Manufactured by Woolson Spice Co., Toledo, Ohio.”

Here’s a great article on the history of Lion Coffee and the Lion’s subsequent reawakening in Hawaii.

Source:  “The Amazing True Story of Lion Coffee.” May 14, 2015. (http://www.lioncoffee.com/amazing-true-history-lion-coffee/). Accessed May 13, 2018.

Worcester & Greenfield, Newsdealers And Stationers

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Trade card, circa 1881 – 1899.

Price:  $15.00        Size:  About 2 and 1/8 x 3 and 1/8″

A beautifully stylish little girl, with a wreath of flowers on one arm and just picked roses overflowing from her makeshift cloth “basket,” advertises:

“Worcester & Greenfield. Newsdealers & Stationers, Central Square, Rochester, N. H. Cards for Sale.”

We’re finding no other trade cards for this company online, at the time of this post.

Worcester & Greenfield were Horace L. Worcester and his partner and brother-in-law Frank Greenfield. The firm started in 1881 and in 1899 Hiram, having earlier bought out Frank’s share, sold out of the business. Hiram Worcester was twice mayor of Rochester, according to his biographical sketch, which includes this photo:

From another Google eBook search we found the following entry for the business in Leading Manufacturers and Merchants of New Hampshire:

“Worcester & Greenfield, Books, Central Square. – The popular headquarters in Rochester for books, stationery, periodicals and literature of all kinds is the establishment of Messrs. Worcester & Greenfield, on Central Square. The business was originally established about fifteen years ago by Mr. I. D. Mooney, the present proprietors succeeding to the control in 1881. To the stranger, from its literary attractiveness, it is a place not to be overlooked, while it is the chief rendezvous to the literature-loving people of this community. To drop in here for the daily paper and a glimpse at the last new book or magazine is an every-day duty with the majority of the people resident here. The stock is large, choice and complete in every department, including the works of standard authors in prose and poetry, the latest publications of English and American writers, in fine bindings and pocket style; toys, games, picture books, writing desks, portfolios, leather goods, and desirable gifts for the holidays in great variety and profusion. The firm also have a circulating library, containing six hundred volumes, which is very liberally patronized by both old and young. There is also a fine assortment of cigars, tobacco and confectionery, and the store is the headquarters in Rochester for the Boston daily and state papers. The members of the firm, Messrs. H. L. Worcester and Frank Greenfield, are young men of enterprise and popularity.”

Sources:  Biographical Sketches of Representative Citizens of the State of New Hampshire. Boston:  New England Historical Publishing Company, 1902 (Google.com).

Leading Manufacturers and Merchants of New Hampshire. New York:  International Publishing Co., 1887. (Google.com).

Sweet Home Soap

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Trade card, circa 1880s – 1890s.

Price:  $3.00          Size:  About 3 and 1/4 x 4 and 5/16″

Young love in an old trade card

Here’s a trade card, a little worse for wear, but still….a beauty:  depicting a lovers’ scene of a young man cutting roses for his sweetheart (or maybe clearing a path for her, or both).

From small cake soap manufacturer to industry giant

Buffalo, New York native John Durrant Larkin (1845 – 1926) was the founder of J. D. Larkin & Co., manufacturer of Sweet Home Soap, a bar laundry soap, and with the help of the marketing genius of his brother-in-law Elbert Hubbard (1856 – 1915), became one of Buffalo’s most successful businessmen. Hubbard is reported to have been Larkin & Co.’s first salesman, and pioneered the strategy of selling direct to the consumer, thereby cutting costs to be able to offer many incentives to buying the company’s products (which became numerous, a “laundry list,” pun happily intended, of household, food and other items). These incentives or “premiums” as they were called, were first small enough to be included with the customer’s order, until the idea was expanded to include the redemption of beautiful pieces of furniture, as well as pottery and glassware, lamps, bed frames and other items.

Below, a clipping from a Google search for Larkin & Co furniture:

Glove buttoners and biscuit cutters

Below, a clipping from an 1888 ad appearing in The Appleton Crescent, listing the bonus items one could get, along with 100 cakes of Sweet Home Soap. We’re wondering if any of the pictures mentioned titled, “Desdemona”, “Skye Terrier”, “Jockey Joe”, “Love’s Young Dream” etc. still grace any walls today. Then too, when we look at the artwork in the average working family’s home, as in….after gazing at our ancestor’s photo, then looking past them to see what was in those picture frames (if we can see, sometimes it’s just barely, and always to the point of wanting to jump in the photo for a moment)….we can imagine what might have been the humble soap origin of that prized piece of wall decor (as in our related post, The Village Belle.)

Factory girls in ’04

Below, a photo courtesy of the Buffalo Courier, May 29, 1904 of Larkin factory girls packing products (and if your ancestor worked in Buffalo for Larkin’s it’s rather nice to think that she might be one of these ladies.) Last thought:  Are those wreaths hanging on the pillars?

Sources:  John D. Larkin. n.d. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_D._Larkin (accessed May 6, 2018).

Elbert Hubbard. n.d. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elbert_Hubbard (accessed May 6, 2018).

“images of Larkin & Co. furniture.”  Google.com search. (accessed May 6, 2018).

“Twin Babies” Larkin ad. The Appleton Crescent (Appleton, WI). November 24, 1888, Saturday, p. 4.

“One of Buffalo’s Most Successful Manufacturers.”  Buffalo Courier, May 29, 1904. Sunday, p. 2. (Newspapers.com).

Choose The Best Shade

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Trade Card. J & P Coats. Circa1880s – 1890s.

Price:  $15.00               Size:  About 4 and 1/8 x 2 and 5/8″

Such a pretty card and with a clever caption! The stripes going through the waves remind me of the zigzag pattern in clothes that has materialized (just a happy coincidence on the pun) on the scene in the world of fashion in recent years, and the design on the back of the card that surrounds the lettering in bold, is delicate and almost mechanical-looking.

J & P Coats you will instantly recognize as a mega company in the world of thread. I checked my sewing tin just now and found all the labels as either Coats, under the current Coats Group logo, Clark O.N.T. (Our New Thread) or Coats & Clark.

Sources:  Coats Group. n.d. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coats_Group (accessed February 25, 2018).

Coats. TRC Leiden. (accessed February 25, 2018).

Federal Pure Food Company Of Chicago

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Federal Pure Food Company Holiday Card. Circa 1919 – 1920s.

Availability Status:  SOLD             Size:  6 and 1/4 x 4 and 7/8″

‘Tis the season….for shopping! Here’s a beautiful Christmas/New Year’s card, probably from the 1920s, showing a nostalgic 19th-century scene of busy holiday shoppers on a snow-covered street.

“We extend to our friends and customers our hearty good wishes for the Holiday Season and may the New Year bring an abundance of Happiness and Prosperity.

Federal Pure Food Company. Chicago, Illinois.”

Does anyone remember any Federal Pure Food Co. labels on maybe vanilla extract or other extracts used in baking? Could be a wacked-out 😉 memory on my part, but I seem to recall old extract bottles in the back of our spice cupboard as a child with this company name. If so, the extracts were already old as the last advertisement found for the company was in 1935. And according to another news clipping, they established in 1895, though no references were found prior to 1919 when their sales ads begin showing up in newspapers across the country and in magazines like Popular Mechanics. Federal’s last known given address for correspondence was 2946 Lake St., Chicago, though for most of their advertised existence they were located on Archer Avenue.

Below, a clip from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, September 4, 1921 which listed the company as:  “The Federal Pure Food Company, 2301 – 2319 Archer Ave., Chicago, ILL. Largest packers of pure food specialties in the world.”

A Honolulu, Hawaii agent ad from the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, September 23, 1921:

The ad from August 13, 1922  for “Agents” appearing in The Tampa Tribune, states the Federal Pure Food Company had been established “since 1895.”

Sources:  “When you have tried everything else.” The Pittsburgh Press, February 17, 1935. Sunday, p. 42. (Newspapers.com).

“No Dull Times In The Food Business.” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, September 4, 1921. Sunday, p. 26. (Newspapers.com).

” ‘Federal’ Concentrated Ready-To-Cook Preparations.” Honolulu Star-Bulletin, September 23, 1921. Friday, p. 5. (Newspapers.com).

The Tampa Tribune, August 13, 1922. Sunday, p. 27. (Newspapers.com).