HATTERS, CLEANERS, AND DYERS!!!!!

[M Hatman]

Circa 1875:

 

[M Hatman]

Circa 1875, real Lincoln vibes with this one:

 

[M Hatman]

Copyright dated 1883

 

[M Hatman]

These blue cards tend to be very early (1860's or even earlier). This one has a damaged back from being pasted into a Victorian album.

 

[M Hatman]

Circa 1920 pink back blotter.

I love this illustration and have been wanting one for a while.

 

[Steve1857]

Some fantastic ephemera, Mark.

 

[The Lost Cowboy]

Circa 1875, real Lincoln vibes with this one:
View attachment 619338

Wow, the word “fiend” was being used way back then for “addict.” Like “drug fiend”. I always thought this was a more contemporary usage - fascinating.

Fascinating (and funny) how they have Old Honest Abe fiending so hard that he’s lying (he wants some for his little girl… riiiight…. fiend!) And this in 1875 - not ten years after his death.

But I don’t get what he’s asking for. It says “card fiends” but it’s a mens wear store? Were there some kind of cards that were collectibles at those places?

Cool stuff, even if a bit confusing - thanks for sharing!

Edit: just some quick Google work gave me the answer: indeed, these were collectible cards, including some kind of baseball cards but also other subjects. This looks like a deep rabbit hole so I didn’t look closely for fear of falling in, but here’s the first website I saw:

Card Fiends Trade Card Set and Checklist

‘It’s In The Details’ Title Card Fiends Trade Cards Year c1884 Size 2 11/16″ x 4 1/4″ Images Single Color Ink (Red, Blue, or Black) Type Trade Number in Set 5 Card Fiends Trade Cards Overview This…

prewarcards.com

 

[M Hatman]

Wow, the word “fiend” was being used way back then for “addict.” Like “drug fiend”. I always thought this was a more contemporary usage - fascinating.

Fascinating (and funny) how they have Old Honest Abe fiending so hard that he’s lying (he wants some for his little girl… riiiight…. fiend!) And this in 1875 - not ten years after his death.

But I don’t get what he’s asking for. It says “card fiends” but it’s a mens wear store? Were there some kind of cards that were collectibles at those places?

Cool stuff, even if a bit confusing - thanks for sharing!

Edit: just some quick Google work gave me the answer: indeed, these were collectible cards, including some kind of baseball cards but also other subjects. This looks like a deep rabbit hole so I didn’t look closely for fear of falling in, but here’s the first website I saw:

http://[URL][URL][URL]https://prewarcards.com/2016/12/15/card-fiends-trade-card-set-and-checklist/

[/URL][/URL][/URL]

Yep, Card Fiends were card collectors. They would collect and often paste in albums. Goes back a ways with these advertising illustration cards and even back to collecting CDV photos and CDV illustration cards and even collecting signatures/photo's of famous people back in the 1860's.

EDIT: In collectors of ephemera and books CIRCA is an confident educated guess of time being a 10 year spread (of 5 years either side), so in this case of Circa 1875 the spread would be 1870-1880.

 

[M Hatman]

Here we have a circa 1890 Large format business card. Unusually, THIS Hatter also advertises cleaning services (rather than the other way around), Suits Cleaned and Pressed!

 

[M Hatman]

Circa 1920