Taking the 'waters of Ambert' too literally: a very early advertising pack
By John Hayter

I find that a lot of the enjoyment and satisfaction in collecting anything lies in researching what you have found. Trying to find out how? and why? and when? I have recently found an old pack of advertising cards which has involved me with a lot of correspondence and a seemingly endless amount of time, but which has opened up new horizons (although I still have not got a definitive answer) The cards are an advertising pack for, Eau d'Ambert, “The Great French Remedy, Made by the Monks of the Monastery of Ambert. At All Chemists.” In scrolls down the pillars on the left hand side is written, “Indigestion; Spasms; Headache; Dyspepsia; Sea Sickness” and on the right hand side, “Bilious Attacks; Cholera; Diarrhoea; Try it.” Eau d'Ambert would seem to have been quite a cure-all! The cards were made by Junes English & Co., and the design of the court cards and the ace of spades has led Mike Goodall to suggest a date of circa 1880 for the cards. But what was Eau d'Ambert? where is Ambert and were there monks there to make this miracle cure?

The Museum of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain were able to tell me that Eau D'Ambert appears in the catalogues of J.Sanger and Sons, then a major firm of pharmaceutical suppliers, in the years 1893, 1896, 1897 & 1903 this last date being the last year in which it appears, Alas, the run of catalogues is incomplete, and that the previous edition in the collection is 1882 in which Eau d’Ambert does not appear. Ambert is, in fact, the capital of the Livradois area of France, situated in the Auvergne region. According to a book on mineral springs published in France some years ago, Ambert had ‘four trickles of acid water. The Rodde spring with a slight trace of minerals but carbonic gas in plenty, The Gerle spring, the Lachons spring and a fourth one filled in by a landslip in 18?8...' Research undertaken by Thierry Depaulis indicates that there has never been a monastery in Ambert at least , since the French Revolution. It would seem that reference to Eau D'Ambert as being made by the monks of Ambert was pure fiction! In fact, in the closing years of the 19th century and the early years of the 20th, mounting concern was being expressed about fraudulent advertising with particular attention being paid to the vendors of patent remedies.

In his book `The Shocking History of Advertising', Ernest Turner writes, ‘On both sides of the Atlantic the period 1890 - 1914 saw the mounting of vigorous attacks on the more presumptuous of the medicine men. If advertising were to be made respectable, it was necessary to dissipate two centuries of distrust created by curemongers. Certainly a powerful motive for reform was that until late in the ninetenth century reputable firms refused to advertise in the same columns as the medicine vendors. Not only did the quack advertisements create an atmosphere of mendacity, but also their pictures of warty women and consumptive adolescents were so repellent that the healthy reader's. eye forebore to linger in their vicinity.

The path of the way to reform was prepared by the publication in 1908 of the novel by H.G.Wells ‘Tono Bungay' which shed much needed light on the underworld of patent medicines. A more calculated attack was launched by the British Medical Association which published two pamphlets ‘Secret Remedies’ (1909) and ‘More Secret Remdies’ (1912) both of which contained analyses of some of the most famous remedies of their day; analyses which made it clear that the public were paying heavily for rubbish. These pamphlets paved the way for the creation of the House of Commons Select Committee on Patent Medicines which examined the issue between 1912 to 1914. The report of this committee led Lord Bledisloe to say `Never has such a tissue of fraud and falsehood been disclosed to any Parliamentary Committee in either House'.

Was Eau D'Ambert one of these disgraced remedies not ‘manufactured' but simply mineral water from whatever source? Although ‘taking the waters' was a popular treatment at European spas, was there any established trade in the importation of mineral water from abroad or was Eau D'Ambert simply English water bottled and given an aura of respectability by clever and innovative advertising using playing cards as well as other media? Whatever the answers to the providence of the remedy, this pack of cards is one of the earliest examples of advertising playing cards. I would be pleased to hear of any further information of Eau d'Ambert to resolve the enigmas posed by the deck. This article is based on a talk I gave to the English Playing Card Society in 1998.

Article reprinted with the permission of The English Playing Card Society