COMPLIMENTARY COPY
Published Weekly By Joel Sater Publications www.antiquesandauctionnews.net
VOL. 43, NO. 39 FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 28, 2012
Advertising Ephemera - Feline Style health, the obvious result of marked “BBB”. As the copy on Advertising trade cards with cats ing inventory specialties. astes so good, cats ask as the featured attraction were Also popular with consumers quaffing the company’s patented the card reverse informs us, for it by name”. . . “For roughly the size of either postcards were “premium” cards, included brew. Playful kittens contributed “BBB” stands for “Burdock Blood cats with an as a bonus with their purchas- to an overall image of well-being. Bitters”, a sure cure for “sourness appetite for life”. . . “The Little Favorites,” a of the stomach, belching, and indies. In the 1890s, Woolson “The cat who doesn’t Spice Co. found plenty of cheery visual employed by Ayer’s gestion”. Said the manufacturer, act finicky soon loses eager takers for its catcontrol of his owner.” themed picture cards, Recognize those tucked away “in every advertising tag lines? package of Lion Just in case a memoryCoffee”. Among the jogger is in order, they fairy-tale favorites in match up, respectively, the 20-card series: with goodies sure to “Alice in have your cat licking Wonderland” (accomhis (or her) whiskers: panied, naturally “Meow Mix”, “Fancy enough, by “The Feast”, and, of course, Cheshire Cat”), “The “9 Lives”, home terriCat and The Fiddle”, tory for “Morris”, “the “The Three Little world’s most finicky Kittens”, and, of cat”. course, “Puss in Cat food. Cat litter. Boots”. The cards Cat treats, toys, and were creased and toothpaste. Nowadays, notched for use as when you run across an standing paper-doll ad with a cat in it, you figures, and a synopsis can be sure whatever’s of the fairy tale story on sale revolves around was included on the the cat, and nothing back (along with a sizelse (which is just the able ad for Lion way cats like it). But Coffee, “used daily in that wasn’t always the a million homes”). case. At the turn of the Cats Among The “The Nest”, 1887 illustrated card for Scott’s Emulsion, “sheet-anchor of the sick twentieth century, these Pigeons lovable bits of furry “The Little Favorites”: a sweet-faced girl, two cute kit“Miracle tonics”, and feeble”. fun popped up in tens and Ayers Pills, “sugar-coated, pleasant to take, guaranteed good for advertising for all sorts and an unequaled cathartic medicine”. Pills, depicts a fresh-faced young- “You who are blue-faced, faintwhatever ailed you, of things, from the likester holding a hearted, low-spirited, weak or nerwere an over-the ly (lactated baby food and “palat- or playing cards and printed on counter staple as cat in one vous, try them. Burdock Blood able as milk” patent medicines), to heavy paper stock. A fetching the twentieth cenhand and Bitters never fail to give satisfacthe less likely (soap, flour, and color lithograph was featured on tury began, and tion.” Said May: “I honestly fruit vinegars), to the amazingly the card’s surface; on the reverse, plenty of conbelieve that I owe my existence unlikely (stoves, watches, brewer’s all the nuts-and-bolts details of sumers today to Burdock Blood Bitters.” put yeast, and “miracle elixirs”). what And, if that sweet young thing their was being offered aside Why? Because cats were cozy. (“Reynolds Brothers Celebrated skepticism long cuddling a trio of kittens in an Cats were comforting. And so, by Fine Shoes! Acknowledged By All enough to give 1887 ad for “Scott’s Emulsion” extension, were the products they To Be ‘The Best Made’! them a try. In has a contented smile on her face, unwittingly peddled. there’s no need to guess at the Constantly On Hand In Every this case, manuThe Cat’s Pajamas reason. She’s just downed (and Size, Width, And Style! C.A. facturers solved The cat’s rise to advertising McCune, Boone, Iowa!”). evidently not minded) a soothan advertising prominence in the late 1800s was a ing mouthful of Scott’s codin Holiday ad cards often varied quandary natural outgrowth of the Victorian the back content with a calendar advance, by effeclover oil concoction, guaranemphasis on hearth and home. for the new year. Pre-printed tively pussy-footing teed to perk up “puny, sickly Although decorated tins came into “stock” cards were supplied in around it. No one young folks”, “nervous lady common use in the 1880s, and bulk to local retailers and over- wanted to see illustraThe artistic cat: palette-shaped porcelain signs in the 1890s, the printed with identifying informa- tions of folks on their card for Andrus & Church, New majority of the era’s advertising tion for each store. “Private sickbeds. It was a much York Booksellers and Stationers. was produced in that most perish- design” cards were the bailiwick more palatable sales tool to able of mediums: paper. of individual companies, promot- show those folks in the pink of invalids”, and other “feeble, attenuated adults”. In case the illustration itself wasn’t persuasive enough, Scott’s copywriters went all out to get their point across: cradling “The beautiful little girl in this another in her apron. The tenuous exquisite Picture, encircling dartie-in? Just like the kittens, ling kittens with her Ayer’s Pills were also dimpled arms, is “ L i t t l e a charming Favorites”, type of childwith “a ish, healthy world-wide innocence, reputation as which has its the best remedy for counterpart in many happy Constipation, Dyspepsia, homes. What mother with beauBiliousness, tiful children, Dysentery and O t h e r (and to its mother every child looks Disorders”. Another belle beautiful), has not gazed fondly upon of the Gay ‘90s, some such scene? Shield-shaped card “Yet how speedifor Acorn, “the handly it might be changed, somest and best-working how rapidly could sickness stove ever made”. wrest from such a fair little form the winsome “May”, also cradles a every vestige of its beauty. A bad cat in her apron, while in the other cough, easily contracted. . .a (Continued on page 2) hand she daintily hoists a package Cats take center stage for Jacques’ Flavoring Extracts, 1882. by Donald-Brian Johnson
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