Product Type
Condition
Binding
Collectible Attributes
Seller Location
Seller Rating
Published by Gies & Co., Buffalo, NY
Seller: Barry Cassidy Rare Books, Sacramento, CA, U.S.A.
No Binding. Condition: Collectible-Very Good. Original trade card with an illustrated color portrait of a young girl wearing a crisp-looking dress. No date, circa 1900s-1910s. 3 1/2" x 4 3/4." Trade card is very clean and intact. A few wrinkles on front and back. Back has a few small surface chips or tears that do not affect the front. A Very Good copy. Trade card for an unnamed company, likely the Niagara Starch Company in Buffalo, New York. Printer's information in the bottom margin: "Gies & Co., Buffalo, N.Y." Trade cards were 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, 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.