BARKER'S VEGETABLE HORSE AND CATTLE POWDER. PLEASE READ! PLEASE READ! [cover title]

[Philadelphia: Barker, Moore & Mein, Importers and Wholesale Druggists, 609 Market St. nd] [ca.1880]. Single sheet of buff paper, folded. 26 cm. [4] pp. A promotional circular illustrated with several vignettes on first and last page, including one showing frogs riding livestock and waving banners for Barker's Horse and Cattle Powder, and others showing horses and cows restored to the picture of health after being given the medicine. Numerous testimonials, the latest dated December 1880. Offered with: a broadsheet, on salmon colored paper, 30 x 24 cm. [2] pp. Vignette of an ad for Barker's Nerve & Bone Liniment, 12 x 14 cm., in the upper left corner, acompanied by testimonials on recto. Verso has a banner headline: "Joy to the World, Relief Has Come Use Barker's Nerve and Bone Liniment," touting this "Great liniment for man and beast. Highly recommended for human beings." Two circus-style ads for the liniment occupy most of the page, one showing a Fair Ground with tents and a long line of riders waving banners, approaching the gate, and one with elephants, clowns, and men in top hats. The pair, folded for mailing, and accompanied by a pictorial printed envelope, advertising the Barker's Vegetable Horse and Cattle Powder for sale by Joseph Kammerer, General Merchandise, Kammerer, PA. The group. Item #64867

The Atwater catalogue mentions the Barker, Moore & Mein Medicine Company, begun by Thomas Barker in ca. 1859 to market his liniment. Barker's son took over the business in the 1860s, and added two partners, John Moore and Benjamin V. Mein. [cf. ATWATER S-103.1] The Library Company of Philadelphia has a copy of the "Joy to the World" broadsheet listed on OCLC. They note that: "Barker, Moore & Mein were first listed in Philadelphia directories in 1870; they were at 621 Market Street from 1870 to 1877, at 609 Market Street from 1878 to 1894, and thereafter at 316 Green. In 1890, the firm was reorganized as The Barker, Moore & Mein Medicine Co.

Price: $100.00