Franz Falk Brewing Gunther (1 results)

No Binding. Condition: Collectible-Good. Original trade card with a color illustration of a young lady holding a glass of beer. No date, circa 1880s-1910s. 3" x 4 1/4." Trade card is very clean and intact except for a few light marks and a few creases running the length and width of the card. A Good copy. Trade card for Franz Falk Brewing Company's Export Beer and A. Gunther & Company, both of which were based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The Franz Falk Brewing Company was founded in 1866 by Franz Falk (1824-1882), a German-American immigrant from Bavaria. Falk actually began his business from a previous brewing company, Goes & Falk, that he had co-founded with Frederick Goes in 1855 or 1856. Falk already had plenty of experience with brewing before the founding of Goes & Falk and eventually became a local legend in the Milwaukee brewing industry. Franz Falk Brewing Company later partnered with A. Gunther & Company. Trade cards were antique business cards that first became popular during the late seventeenth century in Paris and Lyon, France and London, England. Trade cards were often given by business owners and proprietors to patrons and customers as a way to promote their businesses. Prior to the use of street addresses, trade cards had maps so clients could locate the associated business. Many of these cards also incorporated elaborate designs, illustrations, and other decorative features. Trade cards became popular in the United States during the nineteenth century in the period after the Civil War. The late nineteenth century also saw the advent of trade card collecting as a hobby. While they are no longer in use, trade cards influenced the formation of trading cards and were the predecessors of modern-day business cards.