How Trade Cards Differ from Modern Business Cards
The main difference in trade cards and business cards is that trade cards not only advertised a brand name and/or a business, but often a specific product would be mentioned as well.
Exhibitors hawking products at major exhibitions handed out thousands of these graphically pleasing cards. Many of these featured vivid coloring, interesting typography and popular themes of the day, not necessarily representative of the product they were selling in many cases.
What kinds of themes are we talking here? Children, pretty women and sports figures all had a great roll in advertising in the late 1800s and showed up frequently on these types of cards. Popular tourist attractions, like Niagara Falls and the Statue of Liberty, made their mark as well. In fact, if it was a part of American life during the Victorian era, then chances are you’ll find that subject depicted on a trade card.
Products Featured on Victorian-era Trade Cards
As for the types of products most often featured on trade cards, medicine, food, tobacco, clothing, household items, sewing, stoves and farm equipment fell into this category. Grocers distributed cards for the food products and household goods they regularly stocked. The local cobbler would employ them to promote shoe oils, creams and polishes. You can even find trade cards “selling” political candidates if you look around enough.
How Trade Cards Were Collected in the 1800s
One interesting fact about these cards, like their later turn of the century postcard cousins, is that they were actually avidly collected and kept in ornately covered scrapbooks back when they were new. This craze lasted well into the 1890s.
Of course, those handy scrapbooks are often in tatters when they’re found in dusty attics and barns, but the pasteboard cards inside can be in remarkably good condition. This accounts for modern collectors being able to find so many wonderful trade card examples to save in collections today.
However, the trade cards collected way back when were sometimes pasted in those albums and this can present a problem with glue residue on the back of the cards. Other damage like tearing and thinning of the cards can be sustained as well when these are removed for individual sale. Cards bringing the most in collector's markets today are those with clean backs and free of other condition issues.
Collecting Victorian Trade Cards Today
While trade cards really didn’t have many avid seekers until after the 1960s, there are many collectors today who regularly buy, sell and trade these cards at ephemera shows and through online venues. Putting together a set of cards one by one can be challenging, but also rewarding.
Take the series of cards featuring Baron Munchausen - a Russian cavalry captain in the 1700s known for recounting excellent tales about his war, hunting and travel adventures - as an example. Putting together a complete set of ten cards featuring the Baron’s tall tales, which advertised Little Joker Tobacco, can be almost impossible now and very costly at least $100, and sometimes much more, apiece.
Another popular type of cards with collectors are die cut examples. From cards cut to resemble cream cans to those shaped like watermelons or the Hires Root Beer boy, these interesting little pieces of Americana can be quite fun to find. You might be competing with enthusiasts seeking all types of soda memorabilia, breweriana or any number of popular advertising themes to get them, but that’s all a part of the thrill of the chase collectors know so well.
Learning More About Trade Cards
A favorite spot to learn more about trade cards online is The Trade Card Place (see links below), an online resource providing articles, suggested books on the topic and lots of colorful illustrations. Even if you’re not apt to start a trade card collection any time soon, chances are you’ll have a good time browsing this site, especially if you’re a fan of all things Victorian.
