Articles About Trade Cards
 
Currier & Ives Trade Cards

 

by Ben Crane

 

Nathaniel Currier began his lithographic business in 1836, and was joined by James Ives in 1852. They are best known for their over 7,400 prints, which they called "Colored Engravings for the People," but they also produced advertising trade cards which are less well known.

J. Burdick listed 137 Currier & Ives trade cards in his "The American Card Catalog" in 1967, and more recently Ron Schieber has catalogued 166 different designs and 34 additional variants in his "Currier & Ives Trade Card Checklist" in 1995. The 34 variants are black and white versions of corresponding colored cards, and are considerably scarcer.

Shown below are thumbnail images of 119 of these trade cards, all but cards 153 and 154 from the author's collection. They are organized and numbered according to Schieber's cataloging system.

Click on a thumbnail for a larger view, or click here to begin viewing the cards in slide show fashion.

 

 
Early Comics


2


3


7


10

 
 
General Advertising Cards

    20


21


22


25

 
General Comics


30


31


32


33


34



35


36


38


39

 
 
Horse Comics


42


43


44


45


46



47



48


49

49b


50



51


52


53


54


55

56

57

58

59

60

60b

61
     
 
Horses - Thoroughbred


65


66


67


68


69

70

71

72

73

74
 
Horse - Trotters


80


81


83


86


87

92

94

96

98

100

102
103

104

105
 
 
Sports Comics

110
111
112
113

114

115
116
117
117b


118

119
119b

120

121
 
 
Tobacco Titles

125

127

128

129

130

131

132

133

134

135

136

137

138

139

140

141

142

143

144

145

146
       
 
Train Views

150

152

153

154
 
 
View Titles

167

169

170

175

181

183
       
 
Views - New York

194
       
Private Design

200

201

202

203

204


205


206

208

209
 

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