Non-Stock Trade Cards

1911 One two-color folded 1911 calendar card advertising Pastilles Poncelet. 3½" x almost 4½" folded and 3½" x a little more than 7" unfolded. This is a delightful, well-preserved card. The folded view is a traditional one of FC. Open the fold and you will find that the crow has not a cheese in his claw but a box of Poncelet cough drops. "I let go of the cheese the other day, but I am hanging on to my Poncelet cough drops!" The well-dressed fox weeps. This piece of ephemera has lasted wonderfully for almost one hundred years!

1890? One colored card advertising J. & P. Coats Thread. 3" x 4½". This is one of the most dramatic trade cards I have. The lion is bound up with threads, and the mouse sits perched on a spool of J. & P. Coats Best Six Cord thread. The other side of the card gives the fable and a long application, both apparently taken verbatim from Croxall. The card's picture is in a style different from all other Coats cards I have found, especially when it inserts three colored boxes to give information: "Spool cotton," "For hand and machine," and "See the other side for fable."

1885? One three-color card advertising the New Home sewing machine. The card is titled "The Monkey and the Cat's Paw." 3" x 5". Unknown source and cost. As in the other cards with this design, the monkey works the foot-treadle with "New Home" clearly stated in its metal-work. The cat sits atop the sewing machine. Is his paw caught in the machine? A Victorian woman enters the room with an arm upraised; her small son is behind her. Surprisingly, the manufacturing company is now located not in Union Square in New York but rather in Orange, MA. The verso advertises L.W. THompson of Cherry Valley, NY as a seller of the New Home Sewing Machine. Again in this card as in the Union Square card, the reds of the wallpaper and the floor stand out.

1885? One three-color card advertising the New Home sewing machine. The card is titled "The Monkey and the Cat's Paw." 3" x 5". Unknown source and cost. As in the other card with this design, the monkey works the foot-treadle with "New Home" clearly stated in its metal-work. The cat sits atop the sewing machine. Is his paw caught in the machine? A Victorian woman enters the room with an arm upraised; her small son is behind her. Blank back; no text. Perhaps three inks were used: blue, brown, and red. By contrast with the other card, this card lacks mention of a specific retail outlet. The reds in this copy are much stronger, for example, on the wallpaper. The floor coloring extends through the title at the bottom of the card.

1885? One three-color card advertising the New Home sewing machine available at Leavitt & Brant in Boston. 3" x 5". The card is titled "The Monkey and the Cat's Paw." The monkey works the foot-treadle with "New Home" clearly stated in its metal-work. The cat sits atop the sewing machine. Is his paw caught in the machine? A Victorian woman enters the room with an arm upraised; her small son is behind her. Blank back; no text. Perhaps three inks were used: blue, brown, and red. For a French trade card for New Home sewing machines, click the link!

1885? One two-color TH card advertising the "New Remington Sewing Machine #3." 2¾" x 4¾". The tortoise is carrying the Remington sewing machine on its back. It is hard for me to tell what the hare is doing! The card lists both a Broadway address in New York City and a factory in Ilion, NY. The verso has a stamped message from J. Ernest Hammond, Bauneg-Beg, Maine. The message invites, in part, the submittal of "names and addresses of 20 ladies that you believe would be interested in our goods or act as agents, and The Monitor will be sent you 6 months free." We also read "Ladies desiring to make money easily should send for wholesale lists" of items like sewing machine needles, spooler rubbers, and bobbins.

1880? One card advertising Sholes' Insect Exterminator by means of the "Fable of the Ox" on the back of a card; the front of the card tells us to read it. The colored picture shows an emaciated and exhausted ox next to a healthy one who proclaims "25 Cents Worth of Sholes' Insect Exterminator makes me happy and fat." 3" x 4½". Some fable! Sholes' is manufactured by the American Chemical Mfg. Co. of Rochester, NY. The card is in poor condition.

1910? Twelve 7½" x 5¼" cards engraved by Devambez in Paris, picturing and presenting Florian's fables but not in full color, as in an otherwise almost identical set, but rather in monochrome. "Édité par la Phosphatine Falières." Gift of Bertrand Cocq, Calonne-Ricouart, France, August, '15. Now six further cards for $6 each from Bertrand, Sept., '21. The pictures used are identical with those used in the colored set, and the same texts and printer's designs are also used, but the setup of each card, front and verso, is slightly different. These cards are not numbered as are those in the colored series. What a curious repetition! And how strange that I have not come across it until now! Each verso contains its fable text bordered on three sides by a floral display.

1910? Phosphatine Falières Trade Cards. Maurice Leloir. Handmade. Hardbound. Edite par la Phosphatine Falières. $112 from Broli, Miami, FL, through abe, Dec., '13. This is a handmade book containing 22 of 24 trade cards issued by Phosphatine Falières presenting Florian's fables. Cards 1 and 10 are missing. As it happens, I have twenty-two of the cards of this series; all twenty-two are pictured in the Phosphatine Falières section of non-stock fable cards. Those twenty-two fortunately include the missing #1 and #10. There is one mistake in the order of the cards; the sequence at the middle of this book follows the order 8, 9, 12, 11, 13, 14. A hand put a date of mcmxxxix and some notes on the bottom of each page. The front and back green leather covers present a curious inlaid geometric design. The book is boxed. I have put copies of the two missing cards into the front of the book. The book of course supplies the two missing cards, #11 -- "L'Avare et son Fils" -- and #19 -- "Les deux Chats." I will include the Broli description: "Preciosa colección de tarjetones editados por Phosphatine Falieres c/1910. Son 22 fábulas de Florian (de un total de 24) bellamente ilustradas a color por Maurice Leloir al frente, y al dorso el texto de las mismas en francés. Cada una tiene al pie una pequeña dedicatoria manuscrita en español y fechadas todas 1939. Encuadernadas en cuero verde con diseños geométricos combinados y labrados (c/1940). Con caja. Muy curioso. Castellano Hardcover Leather Bound (Cuero Pleno) Very good condition (Muy buen estado)." "Muy curioso" is right!

1910? Ten 7½" x 5¼" cards engraved by Devambez in Paris, picturing and presenting Florian's fables. The pictures are numbered "1" through "10." Each illustration is signed by Maurice Leloir. $35 for the set from Jalilstamps through eBay, April, '07. Several more cards, including the missing #11, from Caveron Devey, Paris, August, '14. Extra copy of "La Mère, l'Enfant et les Sarigues" for $7 from Bertrand Cocq, Calonne-Ricouart, France, Sept., '21. Seven extra copies for €20 from Aux Vieux Papier, Anchenoncourt, Oct., '25. How fortunate to find twelve more -- and perhaps to complete the set! My comments on the first set apply to these cards. "Le Grillon," "La Jeune Poule et le Vieux Renard," and "Le Danseur de Corde et le Balancier" have perhaps the strongest colored illustrations. The last of these wonderfully pictures the falling balancier in mid-air! The floral displays on the versos are here all in red, while they were all in something like a silvery green on the other cards. A good sample of the strong verso illustrations is "Le Danseur de Corde et le Balancier": the fallen artist scratches his perhaps wounded head. The cards are again in very good condition.

1910? Twenty-six 7" x 4¾" cards printed by Typogravure Goupil, Paris, picturing and presenting La Fontaine fables. Each card is signed by J. Shalon or Chalon. Group A: Seven for 80 Francs each from Annick Tilly at the Clignancourt flea market, August, '99. Group B: Eleven for $8 each from Bertrand Cocq, Calonne-Ricouart, France, March, '01. Four cropped cards for $18.05 from Andrea Evans, Red Bank, NJ, through eBay, Oct., '02. Further cards for €7-€10 at St. Ouen, August, '15. Three further Group A cards and an extra of LM for $7 each from Bertrand Cocq, Calonne-Ricoouart, France, Sept., '21. 2P for €15 from Albert van den Bosch, Antwerp, June, '23. The front of each of the cards has "Édité par la Phosphatine Falières" at the top. Beneath that is a large rectangular section. In all of Group A and the first two of Group B, this rectangle is bordered with straight lines enclosing a gray background. In the rest of Group B, there are no lines and no gray background. In either case, a delightful and varied floral border frames a large, delicately colored human scene. The lower portion of the framed section includes a moral, a title, and sometimes the first lines of the fable. Beneath the rectangle is the indication of Goupil and "Phosphatine Falières, Aliment des Enfants." The backs continue the fable. Many of the Group A cards are severely damaged by scrapbook glue, but all in Group B are in very good condition. On the back, those with a gray background on the front have a red floral border surrounding the text of the fable and a detailed blue-and-white rendition of the animal scene. Those without the gray have a blue floral border and a rendition of the animal scene in the same color. In each case for both groups the framing border is again unique, as it was on the front. Beneath it all is the same closing text as on the front: "Phosphatine Falières, Aliment des Enfants."

1950? Six large (just over 6.25"x 8.5") cards on flexible paper from the Laboratoires Gastro-Entérologiques Odinot. Fables de La Fontaine interprétées par Jean Droit. The six are numbered I-VI. Imp. Gutenberg: Garches 512. 21, Rue Violet, Paris. Purchased as a set from Annick Tilly at the Clignancourt flea market, August, '99. Odinot makes Gastrosodine, Sel Digestif Bé-Me-Cé, Pluribiase, and Néo Cal-Ci-Line. Except for information like this and Gutenberg's identification, the back of each page is empty. The illustration on the front is a pen-and-ink drawing including always a pretty girl. I supposed this is a sophisticated version of the "French post card." The identifying features for the girl seem to be a swishing skirt and a low-cut blouse. She is the lamb stalked by the wolf, the reed that can bend. She, with a tear on her cheek, keeps his hat away from the fellow pigeon who wants to wander. She is apparently why the shepherd does not go off on a ship. She drops grapes down to the fox below, who has lost his shoe trying to climb the tree after her. In the most surprising turn for me, the old man planting the tree is assisted by the prettiest water-can-holding-assistant that one could imagine. Good fun for people who know the fables so well that they can enjoy parodies of them.