19th Century Cigar Labels

As my regular readers know, I collect antique advertising, mostly in the form of lithographed trade cards, which you can read about in my sidebar, or here. I don't go out of my way to collect cigar labels because I don't want to stray too far from my field of collecting. But every so often I come across early cigar labels, those that were lithographed on plain rag paper like the rest of the collection. I'd like to share a few from my collection, and I estimate that these are all approximately 135 year old.

This label and the following one both emphasize the important commercial aspect of the cigar industry in the 19th century. Cigars were of course a major Cuban export, after sugar. In the United States, cigars held a special function for all the industrial shipping that moved south by river. When those vessels were emptied, they were often laden with cigars for the trip back north.

Mercury is the Roman god of commerce, so he is honored here with his own "El Comercio" brand. (I'll have to add that Greek key to my sidebar page on Greek keys!) This Mercury is a little portly, and his helmet appears to be a golden Homburg.

Lithography was a new color printing process in the 1800s, and the influx of rich colored images caused many people to save labels of all sorts, sometimes for scrapbooking and sometimes to adorn their walls. This colorful image was carefully cut out from a bigger label. (We should have known that the gods of tobacco rode in on a dragon.)

I've featured this American beauty before, but it's such a rich example of early lithography that I'll show it again. It's only about two inches high.

I've scanned this Cuban label which was actually lithographed in Germany. Unfortunately, scans absolutely deaden items that are gilded, so I also took a digital image of this spectacular piece of paper, below.

I'm adding the image below, which may or may not be a cigar label. Nonetheless, it's Victorian graphic design at its best, and a message good for today and tomorrow!

Have a Great Day!

.

Amusing Advertising for Greenback Tobacco

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.

click to enlarge

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.

click to enlarge

.

Victorian Hand Analysis

This card, dating to 1893, was designed by Barbour's in-house art department.  I'm guessing that the artist who designed it consulted Owen Jones' The Grammar of Ornament. And the back of the card is as interesting as the front. So let's proceed to the hand analysis.

(As the newspaper's horoscope always disclaims, this is just for entertainment — I know you're not really an indolent tyrant.)

Oh, oh! I'm not doing well!

 Well, I'm in trouble, but I hope you did better!

 •  •  •

Going back to the beginning of this posting, many 19th-century graphic designers consulted newly published handbooks of historic ornament. The designer of the Barbours card may have used L'Ornement Polychrome, by Auguste Racinet. Here are several samples from that book:

.

Victorian Soaps

I was looking through my collection of Victorian ephemera the other day, and realized that I could present a grouping of soap ads for you.

This trade card for Tulip Soap is approximately 3¾" x 5½", about the size of a post card.

As I mention in my side bar history of trade cards and early corporate identity, lithography of the 19th century was not like today's 4-color process. Today, this boy's jacket would be achieved by four plates of cyan, magenta, yellow and black ink. But when this card was produced, there was a separate plate of maroon ink  — just for the jacket. For that reason, the color of Victorian printing is often much more vibrant than anything we would achieve today.

Children in every state of undress appear in Victorian trade cards, which is an interesting phenomenon when one considers that in the same period, the sight of a woman's ankle would have been shocking. I'm sure one could write a whole thesis about that.

I favor collecting trade cards that show the Victorian packaging.

Lautz Bros. front

Lautz bros. back

Often the backs of trade cards have been damaged because Victorians of all ages glued them into scrapbooks. But just as often, the backs are more interesting and revealing than their charming fronts.

click to enlarge

This card was so fragile that I put a backing on it to save its bottom corners. But I had to have it because of the unique subject matter and the great design, which is printed in blue and gold ink.
.

Happy New Year!

Dear blogging friends,

I wish you a happy new year,

and as this colorful bird

from 133 years ago suggests,

may it also be a jolly one!

.

J. C. Ayer's — A Famous Cure-All

I was looking through my collection of 19th century trade cards and noticed that I had several issued by the J. C. Ayer Company.

Small wonder, for Ayer's was one of the most successful American patent medicines of the 1800s. As you can see by the reverse of this charming card for pills, the company made very wide claims (below).

Yes, this dinner pill will cure jaundice, numbness and headaches! As you can see in the next image, Ayer's Sarsaparilla is a remedy for so much more:

I'm not sure if there was much difference between Ayer's Sarsaparilla and Ayer's Cherry Pectoral.

yosemiteantiques.com

Dr. James Cook Ayer (1818-1878) graduated from medical school at the University of Pennsylvania, and rather than practice medicine, he spent his life in pharmaceutical chemistry. He established a factory in Lowell, Massachusetts, and through his very successful merchandising, amassed a fortune of more than $20,000,000.

Ayer's  medicines — which certainly have the ring of quackery — were in fact continually evolving formulas, to the extent that after the passage of the 1906 Pure Food and Drugs Act, the J. C. Ayer Company was able to remain in business. In fact, the company continued selling medicines through the 1920s.

richardhowe.com

Dr. Ayer adopted the image of the lion as a symbol of health and strength, and his cemetery monument with a giant marble lion is now a Lowell landmark. To see what happens to the Ayer lion in winter, go here.
.

Garbáty Cigarette Balloon & Blimp Cards

Netzballon

Regular readers of this blog know that I collect antique ephemera and trade cards. You can read more about that on my side bar or right here. While the trade card fad ebbed at the turn of the last century, cigarette cards continued to be popular a little longer.

This posting features balloon and blimp cigarette cards that were issued in the early 1930s by the Garbáty Cigarette Company of Berlin. The cards were lovingliy pasted into the above album, but for the sake of your viewing, I've regrouped them below.

click to enlarge

Left to right and top to bottom: Höhenforschungsballon Bartsch v. Sigsfeld; Kugelfesseballon, 1878; Drachenfesselballon; Stromlinienförmiger Fesselballon, 1918; Andrees Polarflug; Andrees Ballon nach der Auffindung

click to enlarge

Left to right and top to bottom: Deautscher Freiballon Wettbewerb; Fesselballon; Aufstieg des Piccardschen Höhenforschungsballons; Piccards Höhenforschungsballon landet in den Alpen; Parseval I (erster Parseval), 1906; Parseval (späterer)

click to enlarge

Left to right and top to bottom: Siemen-Schuckert, 1911; Erstes Militär-Luftschiff MI, 1908; Veeh-Luftschiff; Ruthenberg-Luftschiff; Clement Bayard, 1908; Astra "Adjutant Reau"

click to enlarge

Left to right and top to bottom: Ville de Paris, 1908; "Pilgrim" der Good-Year Gesellschaft, 1925; La Liberté, 1909; N-I Norge, 1923; Zeppelin Z I, 1900; Afrika-Luftschiff

click to enlarge

Left to right and top to bottom: "Deutschland" (L Z &), 1910; d L Z 127 "Graf Zeppelin";  L Z 120 "Bodensee", 1919; L Z 121 "Nordstern", 1919/1920;  L Z 126 (R Z III "Los Angeles", 1924; Marine-Luftschiff "L 3"

click to enlarge

Left to right and top to bottom: Marine-Luftschiff "L71", 1918; Z 4 (Zeppelin des Unglücks bei Echterdingen); 1. Schütte-Lanz, 1915; Schütte-Lanz (späterer); Gerippe eines Zeppelin-Luftschiffes; Motorgondel eines Zeppelin-Lunftschiffes

click to enlarge

Left to right: Führergondel eins Zeppelin-Luftschiffes; Navigationsraum eines Zeppelin-Luftschiffes; Schlafraum und Wohnkabine ("Graf Zeppelin")
.