G Jeff Cross (1 results)
Seller: Barry Cassidy Rare Books, Sacramento, CA, U.S.A.Barry Cassidy Rare Books
Contact seller5-star sellerCondition: Used - Very good
£ 7.63
£ 4.45 shippingShips within U.S.A.Quantity: 1 available
Add to basketNo Binding. Condition: Collectible-Very Good. Original trade card with a color illustration of a young woman wearing a blue dress and pink, ribboned hat as she picks flowers in a field. She holds a bouquet of flowers in one hand and looks down at a flower on plant, about ready to pick it with her other hand. No date, circa 1878-…1885. 2 3/4" x 4 1/2." Trade card is very clean and intact except for some age toning and small spots of discoloration on front and back which may be from the perfume. A Very Good copy. A truly unique trade card that was once scented with Austen's Forest Flower Cologne as a marketing technique. However, the scent is so considerably faded by now as to be almost, if not entirely, imperceptible. Trade card for W. J. Austen & Company and its signature "Forest Flower Cologne" as sold by "G. Jeff. Cross, Dealer in Drugs, Medicines, Chemicals, Toilet and Fancy Articles, etc., Morrisville, N. Y." Additional text on back promotes the cologne and advertises Austen's "Swageh or Oswego Bitters, The True Tonic." "Swageh" is an Oswego word. The "Swageh" or bitters was a patent medicine with questionable claims of being able to heal a host of medical ailments. Among them, "Malaria, Dyspepsia, Nervous Prostration, all Kidney and Liver Troubles and Female Complaints." W. J. Austen & Company was founded in 1878 in Oswego, New York. W. J. Austen had previously owned a drugstore and also sold baking powder products. In 1886, the company was sold or transferred to T. Kingsford, a perfume manufacturer. Trade cards are antique business cards that first became popular during the late seventeenth century in Paris and Lyon, France and London, England. Trade cards were often given by business owners and proprietors to patrons and customers as a way to promote their businesses. Prior to the use of street addresses, some trade cards had maps so clients could locate the associated business. Many of these cards also incorporated elaborate designs, illustrations, and other decorative features. Trade cards became popular in the United States during the nineteenth century in the period after the Civil War. The late nineteenth century also saw the advent of trade card collecting as a hobby. While they are no longer in use, trade cards influenced the formation of trading cards and were the predecessors of modern-day business cards.