Trade Cards

Stone193

Hi everyone

Now, I know this isn't for everyone - but I thought I'd give it a shot.

I was going thru some 800 ct. boxes and came across some trade cards; not in great shape but got me to thinking how many here might have them - collect and haven't mentioned?

So here we go:

Trade Cards

Over a century ago, during the Victorian era, one of the favorite pastimes was collecting small, illustrated advertising cards that we now call trade cards. These trade cards evolved from cards of the late 1700s used by tradesmen to advertise their services. Although examples from the early 1800s exist, it was not until the spread of color lithography in the 1870s that trade cards became plentiful.

By the 1880s, trade cards had become a major way of advertising America's products and services, and a trip to the store usually brought back some of these attractive, brightly colored cards to be pasted into a scrapbook--as the children are doing in the Chase's Liquid Glue trade card shown here.

Here's a really good LINK to a web that covers these cards in some detail.

Here's the cards I found - with paper loss and the A&P card has been trimmed on the right side.

Two have baseball themes. If you check eBay, you'll find some of these for sale - with baseball themes.

note that the Vaseline card has the date on the back of 1891.

Here's the two baseball themed cards:

I found the A&P card interesting on many levels. Back before the days of Supermarkets that we know so well, people shopped in small grocery stores or the chain of A&P stores (if memory serves they didn't sell meats/poultry/dairy) - it was more of a dry goods chain?

The printing style used for these cards is similar to the T206s - chromolithograph.

Easy to tell a reprint from the true litho based on the print dot pattern. While a modern print has a "consistent" dot pattern, the litho looks more like little amoebas or more like the dotted brush strokes of the impressionist artists.

More articles for those more curious to know more: LINK

So, if ya have any? Please post.

bishop

Interesting Mike. I don't collect them. Closest I come are the cardboard and paper pack inserts and promotional Topps advertising I collect with my Topps sets. Oldest is stuff from the 1948 Topps Hocus Focus set

Stone193

Thanx Al.

I was thinking this would be a bit esoteric - just thought it would be good to expand the scope of what's discussed?

doubledragon

Pretty cool looking cards. Oh, I dot it. I love that.

robert67

.

Stone193

Thanx "double" - don't know your first name?

Hiya Robert - thanx - that's a good place to find them since most are not sports oriented.

Chromolithograph cards have impressive esthetics IMO.

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Stone193

@han_soto said:
i have a few! my ocd hates that they arent “normal” sized or i would have more of them. but i love looking at them. most of them are quite funny and dirt cheap to obtain.

Agree Lloyd.

Ya know? I have no idea how/when I picked these up or for what reason. As I said to Robert - and as you said - they're good looking - high quality "lithos."

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saucywombat

@han_soto said:
btw: and there’s no way that ball didnt hit that big-headed baby in da face!

“YOU WILL BE PLEASED.”

I'd say based on the drawn trajectory of the ball and the fact that the baby is falling backwards the child was likely impacted by the ball in their upper chest just below the neck/shoulder.

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Aspie_Rocco

Fascinating thread and subject. I was unaware of this area of collecting. Thanks for posting this.