We’ve seen all manner of Victorian give-aways here. We’ve seen calendars, nursery rhyme tableaus, die-cut fans, paper dolls with interchangeable heads and even little magic tricks. But, here’s one we’ve not seen before. And, in fact, it’s the only one like it in my collection of ephemera.
It’s a ruler. Really, it’s a very simple idea, but one that was incredibly clever on the part of the advertiser. This was something very useful to both ladies and gentlemen and an item which kept the company name in plain view.
Except…what’s the company name?
The actually-ruled side of this thick card says:
COMPLIMENTS—BANNER STORE—TUCK MEASURE.
Copyrighted. THIS CARD IS PRECISELY ONE-EIGHTH OF A YARD LONG.
So, it’s from the Banner Store. Fair enough. And, it was printed during a time when almost everyone understood fractions!
However, on the reverse, we see another name:
S.B. SMITH & CO.,
4&6 EXCHANGE BLOCK, LACONIA, N.H.
DRY GOODS | CARPET | MERCHANT TAILORS | TRUNKS
MILLINERY | WORSTEDS | READY MADE CLOTHING | FURNISHING GOODS
So, they sold a little bit of everything, and, if you added gerbils and parakeets, they’d have anything you could ever want. I’m guessing that Smith & Co. operated “The Banner Store.” It doesn’t have to make sense to me as long as it made sense to people in late Nineteenth Century New Hampshire.
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