Advertising Trade Cards


Trade cards enjoyed their heyday in the late 19th century and are now undergoing something of a revival in advertising collecting circles. Trade cards were employed to help promote a whole range of products from feminine beauty treatments to heavy farm equipment. Prices for trade cards rarely break the $15 barrier but when they do it is likely to be for particularly attractive and rare examples. Such cards may be of foreign origin – thus adding to their scarcity – or promoting items in especially collectible areas – such as motoring, telecommunications, medical history, sport, and railwayana. Trade cards from ‘big name’ companies are also particularly sought after. An 1890s ‘shaped’ Heinz card promoting cooked spaghetti recently sold for $150 at auction on eBay. This was a charming card featuring a delightful Victorian child feeding spaghetti to her dolly – indeed, many 19th century trade cards use cherubic children to help sell their products. A particularly attractive young girl was used to advertise the virtues of Dr Thomas’s bizarre sounding ‘Eclectric Oil’ in the 1880s. Trade cards were employed heavily by the medical and pharmaceutical industry and this is a nice example of Victorian quackery – expect to pay about $25 for such a card or similar.

Tea and coffee companies also made good use of the fad for advertising trade cards. On some cards it is sometimes difficult to see the exact connection between the colour illustration and the product advertised. A $5-$10 rated card used to promote Gold Medal Coffee in the 1880s features an illustration of freshly hatched ducklings cavorting in the rain. In a bid to be different and thus noticed, advertisers often just tried to use the most striking or original images possible – regardless of any connection to the goods on offer. Happily, such a situation often stretched the ingenuity of trade card artists to their utmost limits. A 19th century card for the charmingly named Rude Bros. Manufacturing Co. features an illustration of a Victorian child playing a violin and riding on the back of a brightly coloured peacock – the pair being led by two doves bearing a basket of roses in their beaks! Expect to pay up to $20 for such a memorably designed card in excellent condition.