# 1790s trade card



## deepbluedigger (Mar 16, 2011)

Recently added this trade card to my very small collection of British patent medicine go-withs. The real thing is just a little larger than this picture (7.5" x 4"). Dates to the mid / late 1790s.

 Maredants Drops was widely sold in the UK, North America and the British colonies from the 1770s right through to the 1850s, and the bottles probably didn't really change throughout that time. They are pretty ordinary-looking tall, square section, flint glass things, but the trade card is something else. Pictorial British trade cards from before 1800, for any kind of product, are very difficult to find so I was very happy to get this one. 

 I don't have a Maredants Drops bottle to go with this, so I'll pull out all the stops to get hold of one if one becomes available (hint, hint [] ).


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## cowseatmaize (Mar 16, 2011)

> I don't have a Maredants Drops bottle to go with this,


Interesting, your "go with" IS the bottle.
 Nice card.


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## deepbluedigger (Mar 16, 2011)

> ORIGINAL:  cowseatmaize
> 
> 
> 
> ...


 
 That made me LAUGH. You are *100%*correct.


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## Road Dog (Mar 16, 2011)

Kool card. I've seen ads for those drops before somewhere's. What are the pics at the bottom (left and right). Some sort of plant and a Still? Any significance?


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## deepbluedigger (Mar 16, 2011)

I think the significance is pretty 'usual' for quack medicines of the time: still = alchemy / 'science', and the plant probably is just intended to imply botanical / 'natural' origins. 'Botanicals' were a big deal in patent / quack medicines right through the 18th and 19th centuries.


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## Road Dog (Mar 16, 2011)

I found some mention of Hayman cards prior to 1744. That's some real early stuff there. What are the 2 names just under the fence?


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## deepbluedigger (Mar 16, 2011)

> ORIGINAL:  Road Dog
> What are the 2 names just under the fence?


 
 It's the name of probably the illustrator, engraver or printer: Long, of Clements Lane on The Strand.

 The 1744 Hayman must have been a different person, I think. This John Hayman was in his late 30s or 40s when this card was produced. He'd started off, when he was very young, as the assistant to Mr Norton. Norton seems to have died in the early 1780s.

 There were a few copy-cat 'Maredants Drops' medicines around at the time, although Norton's seems to have been the original.


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## Road Dog (Mar 16, 2011)

The 1744 card was for Maredants Drops as well. 
http://nq.oxfordjournals.org/content/CLXIX/sep21/209-d.extract


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## Road Dog (Mar 16, 2011)

Ok, I found that John Norton Patented  Maredants Drops in 1764 and John Hayman was his successor. In 1782 Hayman sold Maredants Drops in square bottles. Not sure what that earlier date was about.


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## deepbluedigger (Mar 23, 2011)

Like buses: you wait years without seeing one, then two come along at once. This arrived today. Dates to 1784, five to eight years earlier than the other one.

 Needless to say I now NEED the bottle to go with them. Anyone knows where there's a good one (or even a bad one) pleeeese let me know!!


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## GuntherHess (Mar 23, 2011)

Amazing trade card. I have probably 500 medicine trade cards and its extremely rare to find any made before the 1860s.


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## cookie (Mar 23, 2011)

Amazing trade card..I'm jealous !


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## deepbluedigger (May 5, 2013)

Managed to get a bottle to go with the card, and it's a beauty. Will post a photo later on.


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## myersdiggers1998 (May 5, 2013)

A great get!


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## deepbluedigger (May 15, 2013)

Bottle alongside trade card. The bottle is a large size (almost 5" without the stopper). Not a variation I've seen before. The ground glass stopper is also unusual. Seems to be original, and may mean the bottle was originally part of a set in a medicine chest (but that itself would be very unusual), or the stoppers may have been either standard for the large size bottle, or an optional extra for an additional few pennies on the retail price.






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## cowseatmaize (May 15, 2013)

Nice to see them together Jerry and I like the chili pepper next to it.[]
 Did it have a glass stopper then or is that just an added detail on your part?


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## deepbluedigger (May 15, 2013)

The neck is ground for a glass stopper, and the one that's there is right for the bottle / period.  The bottle has never been in the ground: it came out of a country auction a few years ago, along with various much later labelled medicines. Possibly a cellar / attic find from an old druggists premises.


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## GuntherHess (May 15, 2013)

amazing.  Nice museum you are putting togther over there.


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