Victorian Trade Card & Ephemera Album

A large Victorian-era scrapbook featuring a decorative hardcover binding in red cloth with an elaborate gilt-stamped and color-inlaid geometric design. The front cover centers a blue embossed medallion with the word ALBUM in gilt lettering. The contents consist of heavy paper leaves populated with an extensive collection of late 19th-century chromolithographed ephemera, including trade cards, die-cut scraps, and illustrated clippings. Notable inclusions are an 1886 calendar page featuring a central landscape and a list of literary contributors such as J. T. Trowbridge, Wilkie Collins, and Joel Chandler Harris, with a central trade card for The Athlophoros Co. The album contains a map of the United States and Canada bordered by international flags and a British coat of arms. Commercial ephemera includes multiple trade cards for Pennock Bros. Florists of Philadelphia, Routh & Ballenger of Cambridge City, Indiana, and Geo. A. Castor & Co. Tailors. Illustrative themes throughout the volume include botanical studies of flowers and fruits, domestic scenes, livestock, birds, and various advertising caricatures typical of the period. The binding is constructed with a cloth spine and decorated boards.