As I have mentioned before, it's ironic that I've never smoked, for my ephemera collection is heavy with good tobacco advertising of the 19th century.
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In my side bar page on
antique trade cards, I note that 19th century advertising often had imagery that had little or nothing to do with the product being sold. The charming card above, which measures 12¼" x 7½", is a prime example.
For my own collecting purposes — which are very much rooted in an interest of graphic history — I like that the card beautifully illustrates the tobacco's packaging.
While the plug cut is wrapped in paper, you can see that the Greenback tobacco is a cloth bag with a draw string, surrounded by a paper label and seal. The paper around the Greenback would have been discarded immediately, so I would surmise that if any labels are still in existence, they'd be mint and unused.
The quality of the artwork and lithography is very fine. While Marburg Brothers was obviously in North Carolina, the advertising was done by
Hoen & Co. of Baltimore, Maryland. If you click on the link, you'll see that the lithography was probably the most advanced of its time.
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Dear Mark - whenever I see some of your 19th century advertising ephemera, I am often struck by the way our attitudes have changed so much.
ReplyDeleteThe father with his one, then two, then three babies is really rather amusing - but what does it have to do with smoking tobacco?
I don't think that using babies on tobacco advertising would meet with todays laws governing advertising standards.
Dear Rosemary - One of the things that I have discovered in collecting Victorian advertising is that babies and children — and dogs — were used with great frequency, regardless of the product or the message. Perhaps this stems from the fact that advertisers knew that people most wanted decorative images for their scrapbooks, which was a very new and popular fad.
DeleteHello Mark, I like this card's compound design, the design of the original packages nested into that of the card. Considering how small the images of the packages must be, the level of detail in the lithography is amazing.
ReplyDeleteI face the same irony in collecting--I don't drink or smoke, yet it's amazing how many great antiques are connected to these "vices".
--Jim
Hello, Jim - The products on this large card (which was probably a tobacco store display item) still measure only about 2 inches, so you're right, the detail is wonderful. When one considers that it was drawn in reverse on stone, that's all the more remarkable!
DeleteThese are beautiful! It seems you have a museum quality collection.
ReplyDeleteHello, Steve - I have been collecting 19th century advertising for approximately 40 years, sometimes even traveling cross-country to antique advertising conventions! I had a tremendous advantage as a starting collector because I lived one block from an antique dealer who had a whole floor-to-ceiling wall of Victorian scrapbooks. Over the course of two years I went through all of them — dozens of Victorian scrapbooks — choosing only the best. It was a collector's dream.
DeleteIt's difficult to imagine the relevance of a man with children, but I do "get" the frog, which is clearly the inference that smoking gives you that frog in the throat sensation!
ReplyDeleteDear Columnist,
DeleteAs a non-smoker, I've never experienced that frog in the throat, and perhaps I should be glad of that!
"Greenback" is a common place name for both North Carolina and Tennessee, though I haven't found how or why the term originated in those areas. The most common definition of greenback references Union money during the Civil War, notes the backs of which that were printed in green. Perhaps someone from North Carolina can fill in the blanks . . .
Dear Mark,
ReplyDeleteI think that the message is that the poor chap, after finding that instead of one baby in the house, he now has three, is in need of a quiet room and a pipe of tobacco so that he can 'calm down'...
I do like seeing items from your advertising collection. They have a style and elegance all of their own, no matter what their subject matter!
Kirk
Hi, Kirk,
DeleteMy antique advertising collection has brought me much pleasure, and Victorian designs doubtlessly swirl around in my subconcious. I have no doubt that some of my own designs evolve from what I've collected.