Album of Samples from F.W. Austin, New Haven, Conn. [cover title]

New Haven, CT: F.W. Austin, [ca. 1890]. Tradesman's sample book. Small 8vo. 76 chromolithographic sample cards, numbered in pencil, pasted on both sides of 15 leaves. A salesman's sample book of American chromolithographed cards for social occasions, offered by a New Haven, Connecticut, manufacturer, with the ink stamp and pencil signature of "Dudley W. Hubbard Co., 131 Park St., Hartford." The cards date from the late 1880s (#56 is a remembrance card for U.S. Grant who died in 1885). Most are the standard small format (2 x 3 1/2 inches), a few are larger. They include name, greeting, and sentiment cards, some with flaps for hidden names or messages, gilt friendship, and exchange cards; there are also cards for fraternal orders, mourning cards, a fireman's card, etc. Motifs include flowers, birds, pets, winter scenes, fire apparatus, fraternal logos, hands, human figures, cherubs, and horses. Romaine does not include any catalogues for F.W. Austin; OCLC includes only an 1890 four-page price list for the company. All samples present, in very good condition. Original gilt-stamped brown cloth (base of spine chipped, front hinge broken). (#7757). Item #60632

Price: $600.00