vintage ephemera

vintage ephemera

vintage ephemera

glimpse into past events, interests, styles, and trends. Small, easy to store and display, and often rare, these items appeal, through their fleeting nature, to design historians and enthusiasts alike.

Ephemera, such as cards, menus, and invitations, has been produced in large quantities for the last 200-300 years. Values vary from less than £5-10 to upwards of £1,000-2,000. Most examples date from the late 19th and early 20th century, with items fetching £300-500 or more.

vintage ephemera

Stock-in-trade

Originating in London during the early 17th century, trade cards, advertising

products and services, were among the first forms of publicity. Rare 18th- and early 19th-century woodcut or letterpress cards can fetch more than £200-500. Later, more common, items cost around £30-80 or less.

vintage ephemera

Chromolithography, an 1840s printing technique, enabled the production of colourful trade cards. Many had a blank space for the trader's details. By the 1900s, other forms of publicity, such as magazine advertisements and posters, took over and the pictorial trade card declined. Examples with well-printed, complex designs can cost £5-50 or more.

Sentimental scraps

vintage ephemera

Scraps, also known as 'swaps' or 'die-cuts', are brightly coloured, shaped

cards printed with designs such as flowers, animals, and people. Their popularity peaked from the 1870s to the early 1910s. 











They were either cut from cards or torn from pre-cut strips, and were placed into albums, made into book marks, or used to decorate screens and small pieces of furniture or boxes - a decorative process known as 'decoupage'. Prices start at less than £10 and rarely exceed <£.20-40. Look for large, well-printed, intact examples. Scraps can be found at collectors' fain- junk shops, 


 

vintage ephemera

Mourning glory 

The Victorian preoccupation with mourning reached its height after Prince Albert's death in 1861.

and funerals of high- profile figures were marked with sombre,formal invitations,

tickets, and printed announcements. A ticket for Queen Victoria's funeral can be found for around £50-100, depending on its condition. Printed funeral cards with spaces for filling in details cost around £30-50 or less.

vintage ephemera

 

Smokers' addictions

Cigarette cards originated in the 1880s, when 'stiffeners' were inserted in paper packets of American cigarettes. Soon these cards carried advertisements and, later, collectable picture cards, to encourage brand loyalty.

The pioneering British company was W.H. & H.O. Wills, whose first general-interest cards, 'Ships', were colourful, with informative text on the reverse. Other tobacco firms soon followed, and the trend reached its peak in the 1920s.

vintage ephemera

 

Early cigarette card themes included war, sport, actresses, art, and transport. The key to their collectability then (and now) was in making up the set - usually 25 or 50 cards. Production of cards by cigarette firms ceased in early 1940 because of  wartime restrictions.

The condition of the cards is vital to their value. Their popularity as 'swaps' meant they were handled a lot. Many colourful cards can be found for less than £100 per set, with some costing as little as £20-40 per set. Look out for a 20-card clown series issued by the London tobacco supplier Taddy around 1914, which can raise up to £15,000 - currently only 15 sets are known to exist.