Object of the Day: A Trade Card for Ayer's Sarsaparilla

Here’s the rare Victorian trade card with which the advertiser made an attempt to match the chromolithographed image on the front with the product being advertised.

From about 1880, we see a scene of a very well-dressed woman in lovely coral-colored gown with a ruffled train.  She’s holding her child (maybe a girl, maybe a boy—it’s difficult to tell in Victorian tot garb) on her shoulder in a way which would probably not be physically possible.  They are enjoying the gentle sunshine of a lush clearing.  Beneath them reads:

AYER’S SARSAPARILLA

Gives HEALTH and

SUNNY HOURS

See, it matches!  They’re enjoying “Sunny Hours,” presumably because they consumed Ayer’s Sarsaparilla.

The reverse touts Ayer’s Sarsaparilla’s healing properties in addition to its status as a yummy Victorian beverage.  Yum.

Let’s take a look, shall we?  It starts right off, not with references to yumminess, but with…SCROFULA (a tuberculosis infection of the lymph nodes of the neck). 

FOR SCROFULA and all scrofulous, mercurial, and blood disorders, the best remedy is AYER’S COMPOUND CONCENTRATED EXTRACT OF SARSAPARILLA—called, for convenience, AYER’S SARSAPARILLA.  It is composed of the Sarsaparilla-root of the tropics, Stillingia, Yellow Dock, Mandrake, and other roots held in high repute for their alterative, diuretic, tonic, and curative properties.  The active medicinal principles of these roots, extracted by a process peculiarly our own, are chemically united in AYER’S SARSAPARILLA with the Iodide of Potassium and Iron, forming by far the most economical and reliable blood-purifying medicine that can be used.

     If there is a lurking taint of Scrofula about you, AYER’S SARSAPARILLA will dislodge it, and expel it from your system.  For the cure of the disorders, lassitude and debility peculiar to the Spring, it has proved to  be the best remedy ever devised.  If your blood is vitiated, cleanse it without delay by the use of AYER’S SARSAPARILLA.

PREPARED BY

Dr. J.C. AYER & Co., Lowell, Mass.

FOR SALE BY…

No one.  This card was never stamped by a retailer.