I was at a Rhode Island (wee bitty state having more waterfront than any other state in the Union) tool auction this past Saturday. The weather was so nice I was tempted to keep on driving until I hit the beaches. But no, duty called. I had promised Roger Smith I would stop in and drop off a draft of the pdf for his book.
Roger pulled out the mockup for his 2010 calendar of new information on patented planes. Lovely stuff, some of which I have never seen before. One particular plane caught my eye, the George Thompson patented jack plane. Somewhere in the back of what remains of my brains a lightbulb went off (one of the new environmentally sound compact flourescent bulbs of course). It sounded familiar to me. Sure enough, I had a Thompson Patent Plane trade card in my collection and on the website. I had even posted about it on the blog way back when. It's one of the first trade cards I ever bought, way back in the mists of time.
Allow me first to say that I love trade cards. They're tough to find and usually very individualistic. What really warms the cockles of my soul is the personality of the card owner embedded in the thing. Trade cards of small businesses, trades and such tell us what that person wanted us to know about their business or trade. Some are flashy, some a bit risque and some, such as this one, are Look At Me I'm Special!
This trade card dates from the 1870's. It's a neon bright piece of letterpress work, replete with every typeface you can imagine, squeezed into one small rectangle. This guy knew he wanted to make a good impression. Truthfully, I've never seen a 19th Century trade card of this color. Perhaps, I never want to see another one again. Maybe his hoped for buyers felt the same way? No staid Victorian was this Mr. Thompson. But successful, I have my doubts.
Take a look at what's on the reverse. My guess is Mr. Thompson was not doing too well at his chosen career as an inventor. Here he's offering various patents for sale. As you can see, he certainly covered quite a wide variety of topics in his bid for the inventor hall of fame.
At one time I had a separate section of the website just for trade cards. I may just resurrect it or start a new one.
Till next, Gary



