Charming 1884 Victorian Trade Card Advertising Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co *

Description

Description:  This Charming 1884 Victorian Trade Card Advertising - Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co. has a boy & girl riding in a wheel barrel with a dog chasing them. And old plantation owner is pushing them. The girl has roses in her hands and the boy is carrying an American Flag. Copyright 1884.  The back says " Be careful what you drink! Use only pure articles! It also says" Beware of the Vile Mixtures that are sold for teas and coffee. Beware of Mushroom concerns."
Brief History of Trade Cards by Ben Crane
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. Some of the products most heavily advertised by trade cards were in the categories of: medicine, food, tobacco, clothing, household, sewing, stoves, and farm. The popularity of trade cards peaked around 1890, and then almost completely faded by the early 1900s when other forms of advertising in color, such as magazines, became more cost effective. Although trade card collecting began over 100 years ago, today's strong interest in trade cards began relatively recently. Trade cards that were bought for ten cents thirty years ago frequently bring ten dollars or more in today's market--and some have even sold for over a thousand dollars.
Measures 5-1/2" W and 8-1/2" T.
Co
n
dition: Corners and edges are Sharp. Small piece of paper missing on the back. In excellent condition.
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5/2013
Nancy