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.
2 comments:
I guess that no retailer wanted to admit that they catered to the scrofulous.
Really, who wants to give the impression that their shop is teeming with highly infectious folk?
That's a very good point, Dashwood. I also like the adjective "scrofulous." I'm sure this idea won't give me nightmares or anything.
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