RARE Advertising Trade Card Set in Orig Envelope Babbitt Best Soap 1880 New York

SUPER Advertising Trade Card SET. For offer: a nice group of ephemera! Fresh from a prominent estate in Upstate NY. Never offered on the market until now. Vintage, Old, Original, Antique, NOT Reproductions - Guaranteed!

Quite a rare find - it is not often that a set of cards if found with the original advertising cover! Soap for all nations, 1770 powder. Shows Factory, and gives all their locations in NY. Also shows Colonial American scenes. The envelope measures 6 1/2 x 4 7/8 inches.

In very good to excellent condition overall. Envelope has corner wear, esp at lower lh corner, and small hole on left side edge. Also slight separation at top side edges. A couple light corner bumps to cards - minimal.

If you collect 19th century American history, Americana advertisement ad, Victorian era, household, etc. This is a treasure you will not see again! Add this to your image or paper / ephemera collection. A trade card is a square card that is small, but bigger than the modern visiting card, and is exchanged in social circles, that a business distributes to clients and potential customers.

Trade cards first became popular at the end of the 17th century in Paris, Lyon and London. They functioned as advertising and also as maps, directing the public to the merchants' stores (no formal street address numbering system existed at the time).

The trade card is an early example of the modern business card. Some businesses began to create increasingly sophisticated designs, especially with the development of color printing.

A few companies specialized in producing stock cards, usually with an image on one side and space on the other side for the business to add its own information. As the designs became more attractive and colorful, collecting trade cards became a popular hobby in the late 19th century, since color images were not yet widely available. In its original sense, the "trade" in trade card refers to its use by the proprietor of a business to announce his trade, or line of business. Some cards, particularly those produced by tobacco companies featuring baseball players, later developed into collectibles and lost their function as a business advertisement. Benjamin Talbot Babbitt (May 1, 1809 - October 20, 1889) was a self-made American businessman and inventor who amassed a fortune in the soap industry, manufacturing Babbitt's Best Soap. Benjamin Babbitt was born in Westmoreland, New York on May 1, 1809.

His parents were Betsey (Holman) Babbitt, and Nathaniel Babbitt, a blacksmith, tavern owner and ensign in the militia of Oneida County, New York. [1] As a child, he attended public school and worked on the family farm. He "possessed a most ingenious and inquiring disposition", [2] and by the time he was twenty he was working in a machine shop and had learned the trades of wheelwright, machinist and file maker.

He took an interest in and studied chemistry from a professor who visited the workshop occasionally to give instruction to the workmen. During this time he invented a practicable and economical mowing machine, one of the first made in America. His business was destroyed by a flood in 1834, [2] but he persevered.

Babbitt's Soap and Saleratus Manufacturing. Babbitt moved to New York City, where he began to manufacture "saleratus" (or sodium bicarbonate, commonly called baking soda). He packaged and marketed his product so well that he quickly controlled most of the sodium bicarbonate market. He started producing a baking powder, a soap powder and several varieties of soap, all of them also successfully marketed well, and very popular.

[2] In 1851, he became the first to manufacture and market soap in individual bars, which he packaged attractively and added a claim of quality. He took the ordinary and proved it could be turned into a marketable product. He, along with others like him, helped change American merchandising. Babbitt invented most of the machinery he used in his production plants.

He owned extensive iron works and machine shops in Whitesboro, New York. [1] He held more than 100 patents. In addition to inventions concerning his own field of business, his invention ideas ranged from wind motors, to gun barrels, armor plate, ventilators, steam engine appliances, canal boats and artificial icemakers.

Babbitt became known as a genius of advertising. He rivaled his friend P. Barnum in originality and success, becoming a household name throughout the U.

Babbitt met a young shoeshine boy with the name B. When he told the boy his name was also B.

Babbitt, the surprised boy said, Lawd mister, did your momma get your name off a soap box too? His soap was one of the first nationally advertised products. [6] He used the advertising slogans, "Soap for all nations" and "Cleanliness is the scale of civilization".

In the 1870s, Babbitt and his business were embroiled in a major embezzlement case. The case attracted extensive public attention. Babbitt died October 20, 1889, and was buried at Woodlawn Cemetery, Bronx, New York. Lillia established The Lillia Babbitt Hyde Foundation in 1924, and served as its president until her death in 1939. Sinclair Lewis used the Babbitt family name for the title character of his bestselling novel, Babbitt, about a vulgar and ignorant businessman, written in 1922.

[14] to which the soap works relocated in 1907 from its former premises, a 22,000 square feet (2,000 m2) facility on West Street in Lower Manhattan. [15] becoming one of the largest soap manufacturering plants in the world. This item is in the category "Collectibles\Advertising\Merchandise & Memorabilia\Victorian Trade Cards\Other Victorian Trade Cards". The seller is "dalebooks" and is located in this country: US.

This item can be shipped worldwide.

Type of Advertising: Trade Card
Modified Item: No
Country/Region of Manufacture: United States
Date of Creation: 1880