H K F B Thurber Co (2 results)

No Binding. Condition: Collectible-Very Good. Original trade card with a black-and-white illustration of mackerel in a fishing net and many seafaring sailboats or ships in the background. No date, circa 1875-1884. 5" x 3." Printer/publisher is the Forbes Company. Its locations are listed as Boston and New York. Trade card is very clean and intact except for light age toning to front and back and a few small marks limited to the back. A Very Good copy. Trade card promoting "Deep Sea" Mess Mackerel as made by H. K. & F. B. Thurber & Company, a food manufacturing and wholesale grocery business. Brothers Horace Kingsley Thurber (1828-1899) and Francie Beattie Thurber (1842-1907) founded their company in 1875. The company's canning operations were based in Moorestown, New Jersey. The Thurbers' business eventually became one of the most prominent wholesale grocers in the United States at the time. The company remained open until about 1884, which is the year when Horace retired. Text on back promotes H. K. & F. B. Thurber & Co.'s brand of mackerel, "Deep Sea" Mess Mackerel, by reassuring prospective buyers that their fish is carefully inspected and high-quality. The text on back reads, "Ask Your Grocer for 'Deep Sea' Mess Mackerel; Fat, Juicy, Fine Flavored. The most careful selection of fat, juicy, fine-flavored fish from the off-shore catch is made for the Deep Sea brand of mackerel, and we guarantee honest weight of fish in every package. They are put up at Gloucester, fresh from the fishing vessels, under the inspection of the official inspector of the state of Massachusetts, expressly for us; and we commend them to all who wish good quality & honest quantity, [facsimile signature of 'H. K. & F. B. Thurber & Co.']." Trade cards are 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.

[New York. n.p., ca. 1890s]. 6 x 3½ inches. Color lithographic trade card. Very good or better. An unusual wine-themed trade card given out by H.K. & F.B. Thurber & Co., located at West Broadway, Reade and Hudson Streets in New York City. The function of the card was to alert consumers that Thurber and Company had purchased all of the wine made by Phillip Samstag, the right-hand man for Dr. R.T. Underhill, viniculturist and winemaker at Croton Point on the Hudson. Underhill's heirs had pro-Temperance sentiments which led to the wine sale to Thurber and Company. Richard T. Underhill was the Grape King of Croton Point: "In 1827 he began planting Catawbas and Isabellas. This vineyard of American grapes grew until it covered 75 acres, the product of which was sold in New York City. This was the first large vineyard in the country." (U.P. Hedrick) See The Season of the Vintage, accessed online, which gives the history of Underhill and the Croton Point vineyards and also illustrates an example of this trade card and that of another.