Wear Celluloid Collars and Cuffs Trade Card Advertisements, ca.1870

A charming set of 19th century American trade cards, advertising – via the medium of a frog and gnome-like character – collars and cuffs made of a waterproof linen (celluloid).

After the Civil War there was a huge boom in advertising throughout the United States. The new widespread network of railroads which covered the land enabled the mass production of industrial and consumer goods on a scale never seen before and with this rise in goods came also a need to rise above the competition via eye-catching adverts.

Advertising spread to a huge variety of media, including catalogues, broadsides, newspapers and sets of advertising cards like those featured here, miniature posters, about the size of a postcard, which were handed out as souvenirs at major expositions.