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Antique 1880s Vaseline Chesebrough Manufacturing Co. Victorian Trade Card – Elixir Vitæ
$35.00 USD
Original late-19th-century advertising trade card for Vaseline, produced for the Chesebrough Manufacturing Company of New York, London and Montreal.
The front features a charming Victorian-era color illustration of a young girl and boy outdoors, with the boy holding a cane and apparently examining a small object on the ground. The advertising identifies “Vaseline – Chesebrough Manf’g Co.” and lists addresses at No. 40 Front St., New York; No. 41 Holborn Viaduct, London; and No. 246 Notre Dame St., Montreal. The lower margin is marked “Wemple & Company New York,” identifying the lithographic printer.
The reverse is particularly interesting, headed “THE ELIXIR VITÆ.” It contains a lengthy promotional poem praising Vaseline as a near-universal remedy. The advertisement promotes several early Chesebrough products, including Pure Vaseline, Pomade Vaseline, Vaseline Cold Cream, Vaseline Camphor Ice, Vaseline Toilet Soap and even “Vaseline Confections (for internal use).” This type of expansive medicinal advertising is characteristic of the patent-medicine era before modern pharmaceutical regulation.