Object of the Day: Another J. & P. Coats Thread Trade Card

 

For some reason this lot of Victorian trade cards has more than its fair share of cards advertising for J. & P. Coats thread company.  This one depicts the usual jolly scene of children, but this one is more pastoral than the others.  Here, we see an older girl holding a pony steady as it feeds from the apron of her younger sister.  A giant spool of white Coats thread has rolled into the foreground.  Okay, I know it’s not really a giant spool of thread, but that’s what it looks like.

Above the scene the usual slogan has been printed:

White, Black & Colors for Hand and Machine.

The reverse of the card is the standard Coats & Co. advertising image of a spool of thread with the copy:

J&P. Coats’ Best Six Chord Thread

White, Black and Colors for Hand and Machine.

I do like this Coats cards.  Despite the usual theme of cherubic tots, they really are quite varied between mildly comic scenes and genre images.  The people at Coats really seemed to understand the value of this little advertising tool, and, consequently, they were very prolific.