Trade card for Maclure, Macdonald & Macgregor, publisher and printer

Anonymous, British, 19th century

19th century · Commercial Lithograph · Drawings and Prints

This object is housed in an album of British trade cards from the collections of Bella C. Landauer, Ambrose Heal, and others. The term “trade card” is of nineteenth-century origin and refers to a card that advertises the services of an individual or business. Eighteenth-century trade cards were often printed on thin sheets of paper and referred to as “tradesmen’s cards,” “tradesmen’s bills,” or “shopkeeper’s bills.” During the Victorian era, trade cards were often reinforced on pasteboard and closely resemble business cards today. Firm of draftsmen for wood engravers, lithographers, and color printers with branches in Liverpool, London, and Manchester. The first firm to use steam power for lithographic printing in London, 1850.

Artist

Anonymous, British, 19th century

Date

19th century

Medium

Commercial Lithograph

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Gift of Bella C. Landauer, 1926