This scrap was a mystery to me for the longest time. I could make out that these were Brownie-type figures, and the back showed part of a cigar store's name. But the trade-card had been cut up and pasted in a scrapbook, so there wasn't much to go on. I think the word in the upper right hand corner is "Anticipation" -- like the old ketchup commercial that used the Carly Simon tune of the same name.
Then I found the image below, probably on eBay: "Realization." Now I see how a series of trade cards told a story that was fun for adults and children to collect. That's one big smoke for the Brownies to share.
These brownie images reminded me of the illustrations in Palmer Cox' Brownie Year Book. There are 12 plates, one for each month. Here is a URL to a webpage with pictures.
ReplyDeleteKwei-lin
http://www.georgeglazer.com/prints/illus/browniesmos.html
Thanks for the link, Kwei-lin! I hadn't seen this site before.
ReplyDeleteOh, good, you got to the web page. It looked like the URL got cut off.
ReplyDeleteKwei-lin
http://www.georgeglazer.com/prints/
illus/browniesmos.html