Sunday, August 19, 2012

Object of the Day: A Trade Card for Clark's Mile-End Spool Cotton

Click image to enlarge.


I think that the Coats Thread Company and the Clark Thread Company (now merged as Coats and Clark) were responsible for the majority of the trade cards printed in the U.S. in the Nineteenth Century. No matter what, every lot of ephemera that I buy has a huge amount of Coats and Clark cards scattered throughout.

Here’s another one which I recently acquired. It’s typically odd. A poor, deformed man in mustard yellow pants is being tormented by a child with a skin condition who just happens to have access to an enormous spool of Clark’s Trade Mark Mile-End Spool Cotton. The lad, in his wee plaid suit, has tied one end of the spool to a stick and, stretching it across a sidewalk, is using it to bloody the knees of the hairy-faced ginger fellow.

Let’s see what the reverse says and if it incites children to violence.

Nope. No violence implied.

It reads below the Clark’s logo.

BEST SIX CORD 


ALL NUMBERS from No. 8 to 100.

THE COLORS
are especially dyed to match 

ALL SHADES of Dress Goods and can be
               used
INSTEAD OF SILK by Dress makers and
               Families.
THE BLACK is Strong and Smooth, and
               of the
PUREST DYE. It will retain its very 

DEEP BLACK hue as long as Silk Fabrics. 
                The White, Black and Colored
IS THE STANDARD for us upon all 

          SEWING MACHINES.







4 comments:

Dashwood said...

Agatha Christie rarely spoke of her little brother, the infamous psychotic murderer Cedric. She did, however, use his ingenuity to inspire the crimes that her own characters solved. Clearly, egged on by Coates and Clark, Cedric was a busy boy!

Darcy said...

Deja vu ?
I'm sure glad we found this giant spool of thread in the giant carnation field. Now that we have that sweet deal with the orthopedist we can make &1.50 for every ankle we break and he sets. And I think we should hit him up for at least double that for a broken hip.
And I bet we'll make more money than the plumeting Pierrots .

Joseph Crisalli said...

Cedric lives on! He was ahead of his time.

Joseph Crisalli said...

Hooray! Darcy, I'm glad you came back for this card again.