Trade card, Woolson Spice Co., Toledo, OH. Gast Lithography Co., New York & Chicago. Copyright Woolson Spice Co., 1895.

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

This trade card of beautiful poppies, and charming scene of a couple and their dog by the seaside, likely was included in a package of Lion Coffee. The back states for “30 Lion Heads” cut from Lion Coffee wrappers, and a 2 cent stamp, you could get a ladies’ scissors,  “The delight of every girl and married lady. Length 4 1/2 inches. Just the thing for cutting, trimming, and general household use.”  Or you could send 20 Lion Heads and 7 cents.

This is the first shadow picture we’ve run into, though eBay currently has an Abe Lincoln,  also by the Woolson Spice Co. Did the copyright extend to the exclusive rights for shadow pictures? Not sure, and there’s no telling how many others survived, possibly not a whole lot.  But they did a good job with Mark Twain, or is it that he had one of those profiles that was easily recognizable? Anyway, if you did some careful work, cutting on the line, you could set up the card on its “easel” in a good spot that would show off the scene on the front, and throw the shadow of this beloved literary figure on your wall. Pretty unique!

And this is our second card from the Woolson Spice Company. See Lion Coffee Parallelogram.

Source:  Mark Twain. n.d. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Twain (accessed September 8, 2018).