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Ad Rates / Articles / Classified Ads / Editorial / Home / Links / Showtime   Antiques and Collectibles Articles   Follow the arrows to other stories Collecting Victorian Cards   By Janet Bryers About 1798, a new method of printing was invented by Alois Senefelder of Bavaria. It was called lithography.   Here is a simplified description of how it was done: an image was drawn on the flat, polished surface of a piece of limestone with an oil-based ink or crayon. The stone was dampened with water and then an oil-based printing ink was applied. Since oil and water do not mix, the printing ink adhered only to the image, leaving the rest of the stone untouched.   The stone was placed in a special type of press and a sheet of paper was set on top. There, under pressure, the image was transferred from the stone to the paper. During the decades that followed, numerous improvements made the process much faster and cheaper and lithographic colour printing, called chromolithography, was perfected.   Through the second half of the 19th Century, chromolithography was used to produce millions of inexpensive multi-colour images, which were used for a wide variety of commercial purposes. The ones I would like to tell you about here are trade cards and greeting cards.   Trade cards ( a shortened form of Tradesmen's cards) date to the 18th Century, or earlier, when they were printed sheets of paper that were used by a merchant to advertise his or her business. (Sometimes, the unprinted reverse side was used to record the customer's purchases.)   By the 1870's, they had evolved into small pieces of card that usually featured eye-catching chromolithographed designs. The advertiser's message was printed in an open space on the front and sometimes on the back as well. This would almost certainly include the name and location of the business and might include a list of items sold or perhaps some timely intervention such as a notice or sale or a calendar for the new year.   One trade card that I have seen was a souvenir of "Warren & Woods Holiday Opening" on November 25, 1884. On the back was printed the program for a musical concert that was presented as part of the festivities.   Manufacturers also issued trade cards as these were used to advertise a wide range of products including soap, pianos, laundry starch, sewing machines, medicine and farm equipment. Trade cards were generally given away by merchants and companies to people who purchased their products.   Chromolithography was also widely used in the production of Victorian greeting cards. The first Christmas card is generally attributed to an Englishman, Henry Cole, who arranged to have his card designed and printed in 1843. It started a trend that has remained popular ever since.   But many of the cards Victorians mailed, or gave to one another at Christmas time, look much different than the ones we use today. In fact, they look like trade cards. Designs usually included flowers, children, landscapes animals and birds. In some cases, the back was left blank (and sometimes used for a handwritten message). In other cases, a suitable verse was printed there. Some had beautiful silk-fringed borders.   Another popular occasion for greeting cards was Valentine's Day. Among the most beautiful Victorian Valentine cards are those made from multiple layers of embossed white lacy paper and decorated with small chromolithographs called scraps.   Flowers, cupids and doves were favourite motifs and the design sometimes included a short loving message such as "A Tribute of Love" or "Forget Me Not." Other popular occasions for greeting cards were New Years, birthdays and Easter.                         By the 1890's, chromolithography was being replaced by a new photographic reproduction methods. But many chromolithographed trade cards and greeting cards still survive simply, I think, because they were much too attractive to throw out. Children pasted them into scrap books, while others must have been tucked away in drawers or albums.   Today, these small colourful bits of card with their long out-of-date messages are popular paper collectibles.   Janet Bryers is an antique collector from Hamilton.   Other articles by Janet Byers Old family photographs Victorian scrap books   Return to top of page   This Is Livin' Publishing © 2007 581 8th Line West, RR1 Hastings, ON, K0L 1Y0 Phone/Fax: 705-696-1833   webmaster