Object of the Day: Barber Books and Stationery

Click on image to be tempest tossed.

Nothing says, “Buy paper here” more than a potential shipwreck. I guess. This stock trade card was published around 1890. As we know, a business owner could select these cards from a catalog, and, then, have them printed with his or her own information on the reverse, and sometimes on the obverse. But, what if you spent all your money on the cards themselves and had nothing left over for the over-printing? Well, then, you and Mable, and Hank and Louella and Schlomo all get together and ink up some stamps and stamp those suckers yourselves! This is what seems to have happened here.

The corner of the angry sea/lighthouse scene has been stamped (either very lightly or the ink has faded over the last century):

B. BARBER 

BOOKS, STATIONERY 

FRAMES AND WALLPAPER 

NORWICH, N.Y. 

And, on the reverse, it says:

NEW BOOKS CHEAP! 

-------- 

BUY YOUR BLANK BOOKS, 

School Books, Stationery, 

AND ALL SCHOOL SUPPLIES, AT 

“THE BOOK STORE” 

--OF— 

BENJAMIN BARBER, 

187 Broad Street, Norwich, N.Y. 

ALL GOODS AT LOWEST MARKET PRICES.