Agent's Sample Book from Steven Bro's, Northford, Conn. [cover title]
Author: [Trade Catalogs] Stevens Bro's
Title: Agent's Sample Book from Steven Bro's, Northford, Conn. [cover title]
Publication: Stevens Bros. Northford, CT, 1890
Description: Very Good.
Northford, CT: Stevens Bros., n.d., ca. 1890s. Presumed First Edition. Small 12mo (17cm.); publisher's brown gilt-lettered cloth; [48]pp. filled to completion with seventy-two (72) calling card samples. Cloth a bit rubbed at margins with very brief exposure at corners, textblock edges a bit frayed and leaves rather finger-soiled from extensive handling, one sample's pictorial paste-on chipped away, else a Very Good example of an uncommon sample book.
Rather sweet, almost certainly hand-assembled selection of calling and greeting cards from the Connecticut-based stationers Stevens Bros. (fl. 1880-1890s). Many of the cards are sentimental in nature: one is simply named "Sentimental Card," while another, titled "Embossed Cupids," depicts two putti emerging from a cracked egg lettered "Friendship Offering." The "Love Series" card depicts a squirrel offering an acorn with the caption "I Like You."
Other cards play to the customer's interests, such as the "Pet Series" or "Puss at Play." For members of the Free Masons and the Good Templars, well, there are cards for them too. Possibly the most striking is titled "Tortoise Gelatine" -- a calling card of stiff gelatin dyed to imitate genuine tortoise shell.
Quite uncommon, OCLC notes two separately catalogued examples, at the Connecticut Museum of Culture and History and Trinity College.
Seller ID: 29582
Subject: 19th Century, Americana, Archives and Collections, Connecticut, Ephemera, Trade Catalogs
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