Vintage Postcards: Postcard Blog » Trade Cards

Unusual 1880s Dental Trade Card Advertising

VintagePostcards — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 17:03:19 +0000

Your dentist may be surprised to hear that the quest for white teeth is not new. Here’s some scarce subject matter and great graphics in this 1884 dental trade card advertising Hood’s Tooth Powder. The manufacturer, C. I. Hood of Lowell, Massachusetts, advertised that their product “whitens and beautifies the teeth, sweetens the breath and hardens the gums.”

The trade card has an attractive “trompe l’oeil” (three-dimensional) effect of a smiling woman emerging from a page of advertising. It’s stamped on the reverse from a pharmacist on Limestone St. in Springfield, Ohio. Measuring approximately 3 x 4”, this is a charming dentistry collectible in excellent condition, and would look great in a dentist’s office.

Read another post about trade cards, or see more advertising postcards at our website.

An Antique Marysville, Ohio Restaurant Trade Card

VintagePostcards — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 00:04:21 +0000

We’ve always been fond of this charming c. 1880s trade card advertising George P. Robinson’s City Restaurant and Lunch Room in Marysville, Ohio. Mr. Robinson’s restaurant was opposite the post office and offered “oysters and ice cream in season.” What street was the restaurant on and is the building still there? This Union County advertisement measures approximately 4” x 3.” It’s in excellent condition, and would look great framed!

Ice cream and oysters sound like a strange combination, but this little girl looks like she’s having fun at the restaurant. See more 19th century trade cards and advertising postcards at our website.

Read about more antique black Americana trade cards.

Black Americana Trade Cards: An Insight Into Social History

VintagePostcards — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 01:46:14 +0000

Trade cards have become an increasingly desirable collectible due in large part to their fanciful graphics, which often appeal to postcard collectors. Here are two great c. 1880s examples of black Americana advertising on trade cards. While these examples are almost the same size as vintage postcards, some trade cards are much smaller.

Trade cards are often politically incorrect by today’s standards but, as with these black Americana trade cards, they are also desirable from a social history standpoint, mirroring as they do contemporary attitudes towards many issues: in this case, minorities. In the first image, we see a barefoot “pickaninny,” swinging and pulling with all his might on a clean white shirt imprinted with the saying: “This shirt was washed with White Swan Soap. Does not rot the clothes.” In the background, an agitated black female, also barefoot, stands next to a log cabin (implying poverty), waving her arms in the air. One can almost hear her yelling at the boy to let go of the shirt this instant! White Swan Soap was made by the Flower City Soap Co. of Rochester, New York.

Clark’s Thread also published many trade cards. In this spool cotton image, the black boy is again barefoot and wearing patched clothes. He has a sort of stereotypical “bug-eyed” look sometimes seen in early black caricatures. In this advertisement, the boy boasts that Clark’s Thread is so strong that he can use it as a fishing line, probably because he was impoverished but resourceful. His English is broken in a stereotyped way, with the caption reading: “I Reckon Dis Yere’s Strong ’Nuff, Suah.”

Visit VintagePostcards.org for a nice selection of graphically striking trade cards and related ephemera. Or, read about the search for a swan postcard for a dying man.